I think the core of the issue is that, while you can take a FP based view on how Factorio works, typically the interesting problems to model in Factorio aren't

I think the core of the issue is that, while you can take a FP based view on how Factorio works, typically the interesting problems to model in Factorio aren't really "FP" problems. They're not really "imperative" problems either. Really, I don't think they're programming problems, even if they kind of look like programming problems.