The crazy mob drop sorting system? Yeah... I don't begrudge your desire to make those super complex systems, but if you have to force players to do it that way, and only that way, you are shooting yourself in the foot.
The lossy cable is just an example. Make the machines require other machines to be placed near them, and their interaction is what causes super cool thing to happen.
I'm no modder, and honestly, my mod suggestions are stupid. But I feel the ideas behind my dumb ideas are worth looking at. At least to mock and shame me with! LOL