This tension between two paths, the microcontroller path vs the analog path, there is a bit of an analog to this in the game Factorio. You can use combinators

This tension between two paths, the microcontroller path vs the analog path, there is a bit of an analog to this in the game Factorio. You can use combinators to build sophisticated circuits (the microcontroller path), but there's also a lot you can do with just a few red wires (the analog path).