If you're going to cross a skill at level one(I don't think you have cross slots then anyway? I don't know, I haven't levelled a crafter since 2.0, but I'm pretty sure it's one slot every 5 levels), you could just cross in one that uses CP for something more substantial like Manipulation. Really, standard touch is a very niche skill unto itself(Haha twice the CP for 25% more quality and 10% more success, you should only ever use this on good/excellent procs)- you can have hasty touch by then, and even the 70% success rate offered by steady1+hasty matches the basic success rate of basic touch for about 25% the CP cost. All that saved CP can go into something useful- like Manipulation. My knowledge might be sketchy for levelling since it's been so long, but I know when I was levelling later classes and had access to a lot more cross class skills that the norm, that I usually stacked control but had most problems running out of CP and it took until 50 to find out that CP may as well be your lifeblood. Justifying differences for crafting early on by saying "You don't even have a single ability that uses CP at level 1" doesn't really hold water when every class gets Master's Mend at level 7, the third skill any crafting class gets(And certainly before any of that level 37 flawless synthesis malarkey). You even get Inner Quiet by level 11, which is 7 levels earlier than the proposed time you start using CP for a niche skill. By the time you hit level 15 you're given a complete if basic kit of skills: you have a synthesis action, a touch action, a durability restore, steady hand, inner quiet, and a useful skill unique to whatever class you're on. Plenty of stuff to burn CP on there that's not an inefficient touch action.

The truth of the matter is that you shouldn't be struggling with any crafting in general up to at least level 15. The materials are all NPC buyable, every class gets a useful(Seriously they're all useful) cross class skill at 15, and the recipes are geared to be far easier to HQ then. There's no secret strategy for that set of levels because it's not necessary, and especially unnecessary to grind a class up to 37 for an incredibly flawed(haha) cross class skill just to inexplicably make the tutorial tier easier somehow.