And the dailies are going to have you use their provided ingredients, no matter what. The good thing is, they're provided free, so you don't have to expend any of your own. ;-> Uwk
Some lower-level crafters won't have that AA, so it's good you mentioned this. If you don't have the AA that gives you mats back, you'll use the same whether you do 1 bar or 4.
For tinkering recipes, it has nothing to do with AA. It was happening long before there WAS TS AA. It is a feature OF tinkering.
That's.. something I am embarrassed to have never noticed! Been tinkering for years.. how did I never see that?? I will now go crawl back into my little crafting hole.. it's warm and safe in here...