Ah, you begin to understand, what I mean?
To your example with the package managers. Yes and no. For Linux package managers it is important. The field where the debian or any other package manager works is so gigantic, that such things make sense.
Think for example also to some big risks: They are responsible to keep any Linux system in a stable state. Security issues can happen in such cases. You get an instable system. The damage can be really big.
What's indeed needed for Factorio is some kind of interface-extension to find out such dependencies, like you described above. To enable the modder (which is in my opinion responsible for that (even if he hasn't cause it)) to fix such issues in clever ways.
And maybe, at some time into the future, we need an packet-manager.
Maybe.
But I doubt it, because it's a game and programming games with Lua is also a lot of fun. If you make it more complex, if you say "you need to think to the factorio-packet-manager" it will make things ugly. The cases you describe are so seldom and have such a low risk in operation (ugliest thing that can happen: you need uninstall mods), I don't see the need now - even if it is for the person, which is hit by such an issue is a big deal.
But at this point I think: Therefore is the community. I'm sure, if you post your issues with some mods in this forum in a way, that pays attention, there will be some people, which are willing to help to fix it and make it playable again.
