I’m a big fan of crafting in games but often times I find can’t explore crafting in an interesting way. Then I remembered an old game called alien legacy which had applied research in which you’d find rare items and then by researching them it open up new technologies. Which got me thinking of replacing crafting with a more exploration and deal based system in which you acquire rare items and then trade them to different organization in exchange for accesses to new tech. So giving a high energy focusing crystal to one group might give you access to energy based weapons starting with a laser pistol, while giving it to another might provide access to optical computing giving you access to faster more powerful computers.

The new tech might not be immediately available like a crafted item; instead it might take several turns before the organization can provide you anything and you wouldn’t know what you are getting until afterwards. Also many of the items would be one off finds, which would mean you couldn’t get access to all tech upgrades in single game. Thoughts? Has anyone played a game with a similar system?

If you are "a big fan of crafting" then why would you want to replace crafting with something else? Wouldn't people who don't like crafting want it to be replaced? I'm not sure I understood your post properly...
Also, is it crafting system for RPG or for strategy game?

The new tech might not be immediately available like a crafted item; instead it might take several turns before the organization can provide you anything and you wouldn’t know what you are getting until afterwards. Also many of the items would be one off finds, which would mean you couldn’t get access to all tech upgrades in single game. Thoughts? Has anyone played a game with a similar system?

If you don't know what you're getting until afterwards, it defeats the purpose of trading with more than one faction. There's no reason to have multiple factions, because there's no choice going on. Might as well just have one organization deliver a random technology in trade for the gizmo. So basically it's just finding a random tech.

What does this have to do with crafting?