You can build up some prestige currency before you prestige. That doesn't vanish if you get infinite resources and save and close the game.
why is it that when i reach hive mind, prestige is important again exactly?
EDIT: Okay I didn't check my pollen because i got used to ignoring swarm. I was at 50k pollen but had like 258 Sx pollen inactive so when I swarmed, I was soooo afraid of having to painfully make my way back to hive mind because it took so long to do so. 5 minutes in and I'm already back in business like never before lmao.