Everything Is Impossible
Location
Required Items
Rewards
What the allowance actually buys
One allowance here buys 21,600 EXP, the best on the Lv 20 Alchemist tradecraft rung — matched exactly by 2 other leves of the 6 there, with the rest trailing at 17,120 EXP or less.
Across that rung the return runs from 7,710 EXP to 21,600 EXP per allowance — 4 distinct figures spanning 180%, so the wrong pick leaves 13,890 EXP of the allowance unspent.
On whether to wait: the best Lv 25 Alchemist tradecraft leve returns 43,600 EXP per allowance, 102% more than the best on this rung, while the Lv 15 rung behind tops out at 22,790 EXP.
At Lv 20 this data holds 52 leves paying EXP across 2 categories: the 48 Tradecraft ones average 17,352 EXP per allowance, the 4 Fieldcraft ones 113,304 EXP, which puts this leve 24% above its own category's average.
Gil ranks it differently: 344 gil per allowance is 2nd of 6 on the same rung against 1st on EXP, with the best there paying 485 gil.
Budding Ash Wand ×1 is a Lv 21 Alchemist recipe, 4 steps deep through 3 intermediates, costing 13 units of raw material and 11 crystals.
Handing that in returns 1,662 EXP and 26 gil for every unit of raw material the order swallows.