When bulldozer or runner deposits the ore, it is marked as deposited, so it can no longer be reclaimed by the mountain (even if it somehow happens to get mixed back with others). YEET also marks it as deposited, which actually makes more sense with the latest patch, where YEET is way more successful. However the mountain's reclaiming did still count deposited ores for other purposes, which inflated the count for that short period, but I have now made it ignore deposited ones as well, for the next patch.
Bulldozers have been buffed in the latest patch and will continue to be tweaked. Gold costs are a bit cheaper too, though they still cost 4 mithril which might be a key factor to consider yeah, though in the future there will also be more ways of obtaining mithril. Rune of Speed and Machine now affect them. They now have 7% static dodge, which kinda represents being lucky, tho I'm not sure if I'll make dodge be upgradable since it doesn't make a lot of sense, unless maybe I call the upgrade "Expert Driving/Drifting" or something lol. But they might get a shield that upon consumption implodes in a shockwave that destroys all nearby rocks. And the way bulldozers protect runners is that if the runners are below the bulldozer, the rock will hit the bulldozer and not the runners. It's not major, but it's something. And yeah in the late game rocks rain like crazy, but at that point I assume you also have laser-cannons and other turrets. Though I do agree turrets could in general be better and not have to rely on lasers so much (there will certainly be more upgrades eventually, like chance of rocket salvos and railguns etc). Also I think I like the idea of bulldozers not being able to be damaged whilst resting, probably as part of an upgrade. I think I will also buff base repair to 40% and scaling of servitors by slightly for the next patch. But I must be careful, it feels like turrets and bulldozers are treading the silver line between being too good and too weak, depending on how many rocks rain and how many you buy when, it's a tough thing to balance well.
Thank you for the feedback!