Exactly what I was thinking for the more complex version of the block maker. The 'pattern' would be from a single input direction and thus a perfect natural limiter for how much you can cram into a sole unit. Being able to put it inside of a unit would mean you could create resource farm machines without the visual clutter/graphical load.
Edit: The pattern break/reset would be via powering the block from another direction. So the bulk of the logic is just determining how many times the normal miner block extends it's piston. Glorified counter block that just so happens to spit out resources if you input the correct codes/pattern.
The simplest version would be just a block that you can mine infinitely and autocollects on piston retraction after a certain amount of hits(Don't know why I didn't start with that...brains are mysterious).
I like to think it's a good sign that you play more than develop, because that means the game at least works well enough that you need to play for longer in order to pinpoint any new faults.