The more i think about it, the more a mechanical tool that would create a "crafter faction" or a merchantile guild, so to speak, sounds appealing to me.
I cannot find any use for Muse. It is misplaced, since muses helped artists and certainly didnt help smelting iron ores or to slap tannins on leather, and also it's a RP cul-de-sac... the muse has to stay there, even without any knowledge about the craft in question, and there is little hook to continue with the relationship, crafting wise. If master and apprentice had mechanical advantages to be close, you would have groups working together, and creating stuff together, with an incentive to do so.