Some kind of preprocessing would be nice to control the output:
Scrap -> Crusher (Space Platform) -> higher ore yield
Scrap -> Electromagnetic plant -> higher circuit yield
Scrap + heavy oil -> Chemical Plant -> higher fuel yield

And the lightning also inspires some other interesting gameplay ...

My mod Railway Motor Car (Version 0.4.0) works like this:
1. Wait for the toggle-driving -key press
2. Create a locomotive at the rails (+checks + teleport character, ...)
3. Wait for the game to execute their version of the toggle-driving -event, thus entering the locomotive.

This worked with ...

Yes, I had to modify the logic because the Steam-Release of 1.1.87 (1.1.80 - 1.1.87) broke my mod - see Version 0.4.0.
Possibly due to 106663.

Should I file a bug report for this?

My mod Railway Motor Car creates a locomotive at the players' position on demand and automatically enters it via entity.set_driver (scripts/use_equipment.lua:113).

If a (spider-)vehicle with allow_passengers=false is standing above the player, the player is ejected from the locomotive

The log ...