Fix Logical Conflicts Between Crafting Systems

Minecraft has a one-of-a-kind crafting system which was based on placing items on a grid to complete a shape-based recipe. This crafting system came with logical limitations, one of the limitations is that every recipe needs a unique shape. An example of this limitation being an issue is the door recipe. Theoretically doors only cost 2 planks, but because planks are already used in the shape that makes the most sense for a door in the stick and crafting table recipes, the shape had to be changed to one that consumes 6 planks to produce 3 doors minimum. This is not useful, because the most likely amount of doors someone would want is either 1 door or an even amount of doors. Some of the advantages of this crafting system include experimentation and memorization.

The crafting recipe book is much more akin to a traditional crafting system, however because the recipe book uses shaped recipes as a basis, it is the only traditional crafting system that has the unique limitation of a shaped-recipe crafting system. The crafting recipe book has the advantage of accessibility, but removes all the unique advantages of having a shape-based crafting system; the satisfaction of discovering, memorizing, and sharing recipes. 

I believe it is possible to have both systems work together without this conflict, but to do this certain recipes in the book must be different than the shaped ones when it is possible to keep the amount of resources per output the same. Examples of recipes that need to be fixed / separated are doors, trapdoors, and slabs. Those ones can be resource divided evenly. Recipes that may need their shaped-recipes and book-recipes to both be changed are ones that cannot be divided equally such as; stairs, signs, ladders, ect. 

That would be the most compromising solution, but there are some other possible game-changing things that could resolve the problem. The first drastic change could be to commit to one system, by either making the recipe book only for information not for actual crafting, or by removing shaped recipes completely and move towards the crafting system that Terraria and Hytale use. 

The eventual goal, would be an intuitive crafting system that doesn't force the player to create an excess amount of items. Crafting is a huge part of Minecraft, it's in the name. So it's very concerning to me that the current crafting system has what could be considered an identity crisis. Don't underestimate how unintuitive core mechanics could impact the experience of a new player. Minecraft still gets a lot of new players, and they are going to ask a question like "Why do I need 3 cobblestone to make slabs which are just half-blocks?" Minecraft does not have a valid answer to this question because it is no longer a purely shape-based crafting system.

I don't think the recipe book was a bad idea, but the implementation wasted the potential advantage of moving away from shape based recipes. So the recipe book ends up with more disadvantages than advantages.