Yeah the recipes will change and there will be bonuses and a prestige mechanic so theoretically you wouldnt need to get into those numbers. But yes, performance ugh XD A hybrid approach might be a good idea!
About the radars/power: So steam engines are not completely irrelevant as they can give you a slight boost in energy that the radars eat. Steam engines produce way more than solar panels per unit so you can increase power production every time you get 120 radars for 12/s water. yes its not much but 1 steam engine powers 9 while you need at least 2 solar panels for 1. In my current game i have 21.34k solar and 144 steam engines for 9.31Mj/s and 4.47k radars.
Thanks for playing, keep an eye out for future updates!