I've never had to deal with it in my game, either, but I assure you there were quite a few people that wound up with inventory issues because of this inherent limitation of the engine. There were even
some members of the community that built a utility to help (PC players at least) recover a functional save if it happened. But there is no "fix" for it -- it's just not how the game was designed. It sounds like it may be a manifestation of the same type of thing here.
And it has nothing to do with blame.
It has to do with reality. If I buy a Dodge pick-up, then try to outrun a Ferrari...I'm gonna lose.
Every single time. If I try to haul a grand piano with a Ferrari...it's not gonna fit.
Ever. That's not anyone's "fault". I'm just trying to use the machine for something it wasn't designed to do.
I can be disappointed. I can complain. I can get all upset about it. The Dodge is never going to win races against sports cars, and the Ferrari is never going to work like hauler. That's not the way the machines were built.
Cool -- if you're willing, can you confirm if the same type of thing happens when your craft different items...or does the size of the save file increase that way with everything? Not sure why the limit is there, but there's got to be some reason. What I'm guessing now is that it might be some sort of "bloat", like in Beth games. For example, a script that never terminates properly when you craft the items, running on and on. Then using the crafting skill again creates another instance of the same script, and the references start to dogpile onto your save. Something like that.