AE networks have an interesting tech progression. Early on, they're basically just like diamond chests that take power. You could use a small sum of preformatted ME chests as you would with barrels (tested, this works even with diamond pipes). You can power them with simple engines like stirling engines and that'll be enough for most uses. You might also use them to handle stuff like quarry outputs. You'd still find use for pipes and tubes and sorters until you're basically swimming in quartz, then you'll find yourself starting to add storage loops and basic production tools to the network, and upgrade to access terminals. Going from the simple chest use to a network is pretty expensive and even now, the power costs spike pretty dramatically (2-4x just to start).
Eventually you can replace everything and it's superior in every way to other mods we have in the pack. But that's okay, the mods in our pack are not very good at autocrafting and storage anyways. Instead of being uniformly better it "grows" into your infrastructure. The progression is organic and while it might need a steeper slope and a slightly steeper tail for crafting, it's very balanced early on, and later on when you're churning out gregtech items or MPS agony recipes in bulk, you can pour resources into making that easy.
