You're comparing the Research mechanic in Factorio to games older than a decade.
I'm sure they were good in their day. But time progresses and technology and ideas move away from things that were seen as "good" (Memory cards for Consoles etc)

Well, "Don't starve" indie game is much younger than ...

it's clearly better and more refined than predefined lvl1, lvl2, lvl3 chunks of same substance.
Says who?


Humble I of course.

Defined principles may be represented by predefined technologies available from beginning or acquired somehow. However numerical development of certain principle is ...

It's more like do you want 50 different turrets each with slightly different stats of which most people will use one of two (the more bullet efficient one or the most DPS one)

Or do you want different types of turrets; machine gun, laser, shotgun, rocket,...

Spare me from your fantasies ...

That said, I wouldn't hold the game up as an example of how to do technology. It's extremely basic, and only allows for a numeric diference, rather than a difference in kind.

Not a big surprise for me, I've already met developers which do not recognize strongest parts of their own product. These ...

Since infinite technologies was mentioned I would like to remind about good old "M.A.X.: Mechanized Assault & Exploration" game. This strategy somewhat similar to Factorio by spirit but much more hardcore and focused on complex strategy management instead of production only. In M.A.X. you have all ...

A bit coin mining "data crunching"-process instead of the consumption of a physical product, may very well be a lot more realistic, but it in no way enhances gameplay.

Rather disagree. I'm not fan of overclocking but believe that data crunching sim may be quite interesting part of game especially ...

You basically want to replace the science packs with bitcoins to buy technology instead of research them ?

Maybe not so directly. Because you can't just pick and replace something without maintaining game concept integrity.

However current research concept is obviously lame and non-creative ...

Below I would like to explain my humble consideration about Factorio singleplay game-design concept. This is not actually suggestions but rather critics.

1. Science Packs
Science Packs concept seems to be typical crutch. Of course its production provide player necessary challenge but decision ...