I would like to hear some more views on this, but generally in our games here (with a wide range of GMs) it doesn't come up nearly as much as Knowledge Arcana / Religion / Planes. Only one member in the party needs to be able to ID items, it doesn't have to be you. And in a handbook like this, it's hard to give a meaningful rating to crafting, since it depends heavily on the GM whether or not it's going to be an option in the first place.
Probably. But I think they're not as bad as they sound, as long as you avoid arcana and items that require a swift action. At level 4, you should have 8 rounds of focus per day (12 with the extra pool feat) which should cover most of your combats for the day. At level 8, you can spell combat normally, and it ceases being an issue (at that point, you can just spend points on focus to e.g. enlarge yourself). Bear in mind that getting a bloodrager bloodline is a good thing here.