Pots are fine. infact they got it perfect. They made buffing classes have the best buffs. They increased the time without damaging the rate of consumption by allowing you to put 2 up
Regarding buff timer: Personally I think that the buff-pot patch was one of the best QoL improvement and is fine as is. The buffing situation before the patch was really annoying, but perfectly fine now. Whenever the timer is bellow 8 minutes I pop a new set of buffs and I don't have to worry about having to rebuff in combat.
Regarding pot cost: As a soloer I have not had to do any PvE in over 3-4 months and I am always buff-potted (draught of forces/regen), always have ablative up, use a ton of SL pots which I buy claws for 20 gold/claw and use power/heal pot, and legion power/heal charges. Selling the BPs I get from PvP/RvR has been more than enough to sustain this lifestyle for me.