needs to be added as ?dependency :-)

Why? This mod has nothing to do with those mods.

I added the optional dependencies on Schall Alien Loot and Schall Alien Tech just to indicate it has some interaction (extra feature) with them. This mod still works well without the optional dependencies.
I don't understand why optional dependency is needed for irrelevant mods.

because it crashes the game otherwise.

What is the error message?
Why can optional dependency solve that?

boblogistics tries to access its globals before its on_init runs, adding it as a ?dependency to your mod makes on_init run before your mod attempts to execute on_player_created event.

because his mod reacts to research being completed - you could also resolve this in your mod by having research unlocked a few ticks after the game begins and not right at the start.

Finally can reproduce your error by manually changing to load this mod before boblogistics.
(Different from yours, my game loads boblogistics first, which does not show such error.)

Honestly, this bug is caused by boblogistics.
In its control.lua line 222, it should have a validity check.
I replaced the line:

if global.bobmods.logistics[player_index].show then

with

if global.bobmods and global.bobmods.logistics[player_index].show then

And it still works. The game can be properly started, with the long-handed GUI showing up on upper-left.
So you should report this bug to boblogistics, not here. Maybe they will have more proper fix than this.

PS: There are probably several other mods (and scenarios) changing research status at the start.
So is it more suitable to solve the bug from where it is made? Or rather to request every such mods to tinker with the load order?