I made a simple mod with recipes for new items and a corresponding recipe to destroy them. I was hoping to measure my production and destruction of these new items via the graphs, but they don't show up and I can't figure out why.

I tried adding hide_from_stats = false but that didn't help ...

Terran Robotics has successfully completed their first drone pick and place as they work towards AI construction drones. Full video on their FaceBook post

I've considered doing the same thing. I have personally opted to design a subfactory, test it, then (sloppily) mod in a single entity that replicates the behavior.
If your mod had already existed, I would have absolutely used it.

Are there any mods that can help improve UPS performance with minimal gameplay changes?

I'm envisioning something like Factorissimo2, but instead of the interiors of building being run by the game engine they are simulated or modeled in a much more computationally efficient way. There would ...