Come to think of it, I guess you're right. Maybe that's what seems stagnant about tech mods - to do X, I just plop down an X-er block and it's done; there's one reasonable solution. AE does it to storage, MFR does it for farming, countless mods do it to mining, Computercraft somewhat does it to controlling systems. They're just bland little boxes that keep all their interesting, watchable state inside, unless you take the effort to check it. RedPower's things show their state - you can glance at a tube and see what it's carrying and if it's been marked, or look at a logic gate to see what's inside, or check a battery box's charge level with no GUIs.