I hated research the first time, nevermind any other subsequent times.The didn't remove ALL mana petals - just the version of the petals where you used to drop them into a Mana Pool and receive a "Mana-Infused Petal". The regular petals (from the flowers) are still in the game. One thing we noticed, however... turning Botania Petals into the powder version by using the mortar and pestle, well that powder has lost its ability to act as dyes in this modpack for some reason. Botania "petal powder" used to be the best source - the easiest source - of all the dye colors. They DO work for coloring the OpenBlocks Elevator blocks... but they do NOT work as a substitute for any dye in any recipe. Very disappointing, but no idea who is to blame for that change, the mod itself or the modpack...
And I hear ya brother, regarding doing Thaumcraft research tree for the ninth or tenth or twentieth time. At some point, Thaumcraft will just die because the entire modded minecraft player community is gonna refuse en masse to jump thru the research hoops AGAIN. JUST SAY NO! lol It's a great mod, don't get me wrong... but I'm sure most will understand perfectly what I mean. Dentvar understands, quite clearly. LOL Best solution to this recurring problem in modpack land? These two webpages, they're the best we can do if we do not have access to Creative mode:
http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/thr...o-discover-all-aspects-updated-for-4-2.33605/
http://ythri.github.io/tcresearch/
I have used both these sites in the past liberally.