turning OH YEEAAAAHH off actually looks like it "fixes" things so I've enough resources to start autobuying. I think I realized what the issue is. the 1000 extra puts you at this sweet spot where a chemo immediately buys some extra-normal upgrades which drops you under enough to start out the loreds
An alternative for the upgrade. what about starting a new chemo with all stage 2 LOREDs unlocked at level 1 instead of the 1000 extra resources?
Could also split it out into individual upgrades for each group of blocking resources, like water/seeds/trees, liquid iron/steel, humus/sand/glass, plates/wire, wood/hardwood/axes