If I’m buying a recipe I want it to be clear what item I’m exactly crafting and the relevant stats. It tells me nothing to blow 80+ copper on a Tallbear armor without knowing if it’s leather/cloth and what are the stats and level requirements. Same for the Spherin recipe from the enchanter; is it a staff? Another merchant shows a recipe where the item icon looks like a spear but it actually doesn’t tell you what the item is.
You really can’t afford trial and error on this game because of the steep, brutal early game economy, so keeping things a surprise is just not a working strategy for early game players, especially because there is no reload in case you discover what you wasted half your savings on turns out to not be useful.