Something interesting I found out: what's the difference between combining 4 coal and an iron ingot to make steel dust, then cook in a furnace to get steel (I think it's universal electricity's recipe) and to make an industrial blast furnace, use... some coal and ton of time to get steel? You use the same amount of materials to create it, you just waste time creating the machine and waiting for it to make steel.
It's because wasting time makes the game 'hard' and 'more enjoyable'.