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Unfortunately, that seems the simplest (and therefore most likely) scenario. I think our best bet is just to hang in there and wait until the EPG comes out in June/July.

I'm coming very late to this discussion, but I have some thoughts.

One of the questions has been whether dwarves, who are credited with inventing Artifice, are any good at it. Now I for one don't believe that dwarves need to be the absolute best suited race at artifice in order to have invented it. Plenty of ideas are developed by one person, but perfected by another. I would argue that most ideas are that way. Newton invented physics and calculus (which is no mistake, as calculus and physics are inter-related), but I wouldn't call him the greatest physicist and mathematician ever. Still, it is fair to note that dwarves should at least be good enough at the class that they get credit for it. Whether they are is a fair question, as dwarves gain bonuses in the secondary stats, but not the primary. Is this enough? Dwarves aren't considered to make great bards, although they get a bonus in the secondary for that class.

Well, it really depends on how much both secondaries matter to the Artificer. Some classes, like the aforementioned bard, have two secondaries, but really only need one. As long as they select powers favoring whichever secondary they selected, they can completely dump the other and call it a day. Wizards, rogues, warlords, etc. are designed this way. Wizards are of particular note, as they have both Constitution and Wisdom (and Dex) as secondaries, but they're generally considered a SAD class, enough so that people frequently put 18 in their primary before racials, and then pouring the rest of the points into a single secondary attribute (Wisdom for the all powerful Orb wizard).

Fighters, on the other hand, are designed so that both Con and Wis matter. Every fighter benefits from a good wisdom, as it improves their OAs, which are critical for a fighter. Every fighter needs Con as it improves his HP and the number of surges. Pit fighters need Wis for damage. Polearm fighters need Wis for Polearm Gamble. Axe and hammer fighters need Con for their weapon feats and powers. Battleragers need Con for their HP. In short, having both Wis and Con gives dwarves a number of advantages as a fighter from the very beginning. It also opens up a number of obvious possibilities--and by obvious, I mean things that are in character for a dwarf to do. Wielding Axes and Hammers. Battleraging. Pit fighting. And so on.

So, my take is that if you want dwarves to be natural Artificers, you need to make both Constitution and Wisdom matter. Having them both be secondaries is not enough if you only really need one.