If the conversation of making it somehow quicker has a drawback, then I'd be inclined to just stick a pin in it where it is now, and call it done. This server demands way too much investment and time from its players, as it is, making it near-impossible to casually enjoy in any meaningful manner.
See that's exactly it!
Increased CXP with a soft or even hard cap actually would be of tremendous help to casual players. Let say you are limited to earn 10 crafting levels a week (5 for support crafts, 5 for main crafts, a bit more at lower level to quickly reach a point were you can sell decent wares), but can earn them with a mere 30 minutes of work per week. You don't need to gather as much material, just got a hell lot of more time to dungeon and roleplay, and it still satisfies the time investment condition as it will take you 15 weeks to master a main craft without too much grinding.
Mind you, we're not heading that way. This proposal was already rejected twice. I don,t expect a different result. It very much look like we're heading toward status quo.
I mean. Let me be clear; I might sound a bit cantankerous or surly when it comes to these things, but I'm not ignorant to the intentions of it. I just don't see why we're terribly concerned over the number of craftsmen on the server at the end of the day. It seems a bit arbitrary, and in effect, a bit silly to try to artificially complicate or simplify the process to satisfy a percentage number of craftsmen/master craftsmen active. Mostly because, ideally, everyone would be involved in some craft, to some degree on the server.
While that's certainly not the case in reality, it's a possibility, and the server itself has gone through trends of crafting popularity and downfall, and -- Admittedly -- Every time you add new items, add new recipes, add new updates to the crafting system, you're inadvertently stoking the fires of interest to grind out crafting and exacerbating your own problem. Part of the reason there are so many craftsmen now, and so many master craftsmen, is because the crafting system now caters to a much larger audience and has becoming an increasingly important part of the server. It used to just be a way to get silver weapons, when was first implemented, and back then they weren't even as good. Now it's a critical part of the process for every character to get a craftsmen on speed-dial, to get armor and weapons made of rare material and enchanted. It plays the part of a massive economic incentive for people to learn it, to make money, to fund their own characters, interests, and ambitions on a level that now, with the inclusion of so many valuable crafting materials outside of Adamantine, can compete with regularity and profit with hardcore ninjalooters. Not to mention, the starry-eyed dream of every craftsman to aggressively engage in economic warfare to undermine other craftsmen until they get tired, quit, and then jack the prices up because the player economy is live. Which is probably one of the better aspects of PoTM.
Tailoring, Leatherworking, Herbalism, and Smithing have more things to make, do, sell, and want now than they ever have before, inspiring more people to make more characters with more mercantile goals. While someone can have a lower-level character who, within a month or two can achieve a relatively high level in a craft, I do not in earnest believe artificial caps are going to do anything healthy for the server. This is a game, in the end, we're all here to have fun. There really doesn't need to be some arbitrary equalizer in time to keep people from playing the game as much as they have fun, or as less as they have fun. Reducing the gameplay/goals side of the coin to be reduced to force you to cap out not only your dungeon XP, but crafting XP, kills the game side of things, stunts interest and potential, and is ultimately an unrewarding experience.