I think the level for saddles should be lowered. Do not change the ingredients of them just make them lower levels. This way you still have to get to certain levels to unlock the ingredients or you have to leave your little safety hole and hunt large predators and hope that they have the materials you need to make the saddle.
I would even go so far as to suggest that saddles be like the buildings and make you get the predecessor saddles. This way you cannot skip straight to endgame dinos. But if your luck is good and you focus down the tree you can get there.
This would also help to get people to specialize on a job more that now.