No.

The game's addictiveness largely comes from power-spikes. It's not necessarily any better than finding an altar very early and getting crowned with a mid+ tier artifact. There aren't many things that all on its own will carry you to victory; at best, they may solve one slot for a long time. But then there's the matter of people getting careless when they have a good item; it can't make up for experience, you still have to be good at the game. And if you're good enough at the game you quite likely would have survived to mid-game anyway, great weapon or not--unless you fell afoul of the many ways to die that a weapon can't grant you immunity to. E2HS aren't even that great by the point you're broaching darkforge/TOEF, they're more of a fallback, unless you're lucky enough to get a great ego extension.

*EDIT I didn't read properly; you only want to get rid of the highest metal. I can see why you suggest it; eternium is one of the few things that are danger-level locked quite effectively, although they're still not amazing, but what about ego weapons? An iron weapon of devastation is generally better than an eternium vanilla of the same sort, except for destructability. And those can be dropped anywhere, not just the smc.

Maybe as a compromise, make it impossible for eternium weaps to have extensions in the small cave, but that might be too much 'special code' for some. (Actually it wouldn't bother me if for balance reasons eternium weapons never got extensions at all, or were locked behind very high danger walls).

I sort of agree with auricbond but I need to add something extra.
I'm a scummer and I frequently visit smc just to get my hands on a possible eternium two-hander.
It indeed happens once in 15-20 games.
And that is perfectly fine.
Let us have it. If one game out of fifteen starts out in easy mode then so be it.
I like the chance to get this item in smc and most of the time I don't get it and then I just move on.
It's not particularly scummable, it doesn't give you resistance to paralyzation, magic bolts or missiles that can easily kill you.
If anything, it makes you go further than you should without sufficient HP or levels and perish to some traps or poison after being swarmed by summoned spiders.
It lures you into a false sense of might and invincibility.
It grants tremendous offensive advantage, true, but at the same time opens you to retaliation in that crucial early phase of the game.
Out of all the chars that started the game in smc and found the eternium 2h there, half died along the way due to lack of PV, lack of DV or overconfidence.
"Hah I got teh sword! let's melee that ogre magus in UD:7!
- let's go melee mode with my wizard!
- let's clear that jelly vault with corrosion-immune weapon!
- let's do a quicky one-hit wonder on hotzy..."

It's a fair deal, especially since by the end of the early game, many chars can manage to loot darkforge and get an eternium 2h anyway.

Hence, voting no.

I don't usually visit SMC early - always going for puppy and Kranach quests before it's too late. At level six SMC is really hard and I'm loosing characters which were able to save the cute dong and kill Kranach quite often. Finding eternium gear there is just fine.
Going to SMC at level 1 means that you're giving up one of these quest or at least loosing easiest possibility to make one of the best first kills (mugger / beggar) allowing both courage and Filk quest to be completed with no hastle. Hence possible eternium gear there at level one still have a price of loosing another good thing.

No from me.