I assume that the cycling of metal has been left possible because the Devs don't entirely dislike it as a concept. It makes sense also to me that with some effort you should be able to refine and improve the quality of metal and reasonable that some people might wish to specialise in this.
However, I find it irksome that the best way to achieve this involves having an alt with no metalworking skills and just a load of strength and smithing, you would think that having skills should improve your chances of achieving something, particularly when, whether by design or not, the objective in question has such a significant bearing on qualities in the game.
I would suggest to rectify this situation that you either create another crafting process to 'refine cast iron' as an alternative to 'wrought iron' which would remove the influences of the metal working skill tree in the liklihood of producing wrought or cast; Or, allow wrought iron to be returned to the finery forge in the same way as cast iron.
(I appreciate that this subject has come up before, but previous threads are a bit old and messy)