We all go through different stages of optimization. We all probably started with a ranger and thought that it was better than a fighter, then we saw the damage potential of a rogue, ...Warlocks...Swordsages...Warblades...Multiclass madness, VOP monk/druid... I just happened to be on the artificer stage and was astounded at the progression rate he had compared with the other classes, but was blinded at the cost prohibitiveness of spamming scrolls and flushing your money down the drain with consumable power. There's something to be said about his versatility and the speed with which he can acquire that versatility, but his day-to-day endurance is lacking.
Currently I've returned to the wizard and see that the 2 are complementary.
I will be renaming my handbook to something else. General artificer / versatficer / buff-blastificer can't decide. My handbook is more of a "Here's a great base that accomplishes most of the artificer stereotypes while still maintaining tier 1 instead of sacrificing your resources to become BST/GC/fop"