I'm on my second play through, having a new blast all over again. Love many of the changes and refinements to both the pack and the mods. I learned so much the first time through, it's a challenge to improve on this run. One thing I definitely improved this run was how I combine essences on the fly.
Since I have a far better laid out farm (even though it's underground) AND I'm doing the Robot/Hopperhock method this pass... I have built my transit network from farms to storage in such a way that each essence is diverted into it's own Auto Workbench. these little beauties will take source material, and output (bottom only) finished product (piped and gated to return to the flow to storage)
A farm of 16 essences will not overload them and only the finished goods continue down the path...
I also have used the Auto Assembler, but for farm integration the A-W is the superior choice
Wooden, Golden, Diamond, and Iron pipes (with gates and occasional plugs) are all you need.
The really cool thing is that this system is mostly invisible... Robot harvests, Hopperhock collects, I route my pipe one layer below the paths between the grids and put the A-W to either side under the farmland, finished goods arrive at my inventory wall.
Love it!