Noobies can make many other types of knives just requires a knife blade. I see no reason to make this change, if they were to change it it would need to be balanced on how hard it is to get knife blades/bear claws else it wouldn't be fair/balanced.
Small plates are a common item and can be found through pulling scrap and sorting OR scavenging, making it extremely easy to get that material.
You have to look at balance and not just making things just super easy.