Thought i'd provide some insight - might help the community, or help Scorp on any changes he intends to make. If required at all.
Changes that have been made clearly are:
1. Slight tweak on id'ing from monster drops. Overall i've seen a slightly improved overall outcome. But nothing materially changed here.
2. Significant tweak on salvaging. The levels the item can drop when changing into a design or essence have not been as vast since the update. More interestingly, there is now a chance that the salvage will increase the star rating / quality level on the design or essense. I have had multiple instances where 5/6 star items with barely any addiitonal states turn out to be Artefact 90%+ quality essences. Whilst this is a nice bonus - I think it might need tweaking down slightly. This is compounded by point 3 and perhaps why people are disgruntled. What is also new, is that salvaging a high (exceptional Artefact for example) item can produce a 100%+ quality essence. I've seen multiple examples of 108/112%. This in theory means that the total achievable combined quality is now higher than before. Leading on to point 3.
3. The ingredients used (combined quality level) and the targets needed to create a Artefact item seem to have changed. Prior to reboot, there was a pretty much sure way of guaranteeing Artefact upgrades (what stat you get was mostly RNG) but spread could be controlled. There is, from what I can tell over limited examples since reboot a slightly higher RNG element within the calculation now. Also the targets I believe have now generally increased to hit the desired outcomes. This however is now more easily achieved than it was before.
4. Finally, the required combined level to upgrade has been tweaked down. Prior to upgrade you would need for example on a Celestial item, combined levels of roughly 328 to get a successful upgrade (i.e a 160 design and 168 essence). Now it is clear that aslong as the total levels exceed the item level it generally works. i.e. using a 160 design and 161 essence.
Therefore in summary... because you are now receiving generally, higher level salvages and higher quality essnese / design than before, and that you dont need as high essense or design to make the upgrade you want, in theory the number of upgrades available should be higher. People will be able to hunt in the areas designated for their level and use the salvaging of those items to upgrade the same level items. Rather than having to hunt in higher caves to get the design you need.
It clearly needs some more investigating but for me thats part of the fun. I could knock out Artefact after Artefact item in old world - what fun is that? Now i have something new to test.
One ask though - let us know if you do intend to change further as ill wait to do more testing
I'll kindly share my results with those who are interested.