I think the idea of not telling the PC the formula for every magic item is a good thing. 3E made magic items into WalMart or Betty Crocker. You could either pick them up at the corner store or you could just whip up a batch of +3 Flaming, Dancing Longswords with just the outlay of time and coins. The Older editions required that you work with the DM and most likely go adventuring to find the correct components, hunting down master craftsmen to forge the items, etc. Those editions required the DM and the player to agree. 3E+ put magic item creation into the hands of the players, who if given downtime and a few coins just did it with minimal (if any) input from the DM.
In older editions, if a DM thought that a particular item would not fit very well, he could just make the components ridiculous to obtain. 3E+ RAW made the items "tada".
