FWIW, the aliens are also there to make land precious, so there is a more meaningful tradeoff between building a tidy, future-proof factory layout, and somethin

FWIW, the aliens are also there to make land precious, so there is a more meaningful tradeoff between building a tidy, future-proof factory layout, and something that lets you avoid that nest of biters to your east. Even later in the game, as you build out train lines to expand to the richer ore patches, they push you to develop automatic systems which can resupply your outposts with extra construction robots, repair packs, replacement laser turrets, walls, artillery shells. Without this, your logistics are mostly one-way: everything except, perhaps, electricity, flows from the outpost to the central factory. (You can get away with doing it manually, but as the aliens get larger and more aggressive, particularly with behemoth spitters, it pays to use a train.)