An exploit to be sure, and easy enough to fix by increasing the number of short strings required or removing the option to use long string, but it is more of a limitation of the engine than something operating in a faulty fashion. The game just doesn’t care which recipe was used, so it really can’t track what was used to make it without having multiple identical items with different recipes, and that would cause all manner of horrible clutter. They could try adding on some new variables to items, much as you can have cursed items in more traditional roguelikes, but those are generally dealing with FAR fewer items at any given time… It seems extremely doubtful that anything will be done about this in any sort of practical timeframe, so I recommend enjoying the windfall or using your ill-gotten gains as kindling to ease your conscience. Or build a few cargo carriers, deriving all your rope from rags, you will likely never complain about an abundance of thread again…
