I don't think we should have stone bins per se but maybe an alternative, like a item dump designation that works like a stockpile, but has a small chance of damaging high value items slightly. That way you could dig a pit next to a craftsdwarves' workshop and he could dump the items in the pit. It would still be advantageous to use bins, as it could damage maybe 5-10% of your items, but it would allow you to go without if need be.
Another option would be the "vault" designation". Unlike a regular stockpile, items would be piled inside to the point where the ones in the back could no longer be accessed. This would be beneficial for things like crafts, in which it doesn't matter which one they grab as long as they take some of them to the depot every time they come. To make it more realistic, a similar but slightly lower chance damage could be applied due to the weight of all the items being piled on top of each other.
Both of these solutions would not give the ability to have all of the items carried in the bin, but would save space so the dwarves do not have to travel across 30 extra tiles of storage every time they go to grab an item. They should also be selectable from the item menus as a single item, allowing you to tell dwarves to take all of the items to the depot, or to dump them all at once.