Started experimenting with loaders. I was having trouble understanding why certain things weren't getting loaded/unloaded.
Eventually, I realized that a single loader can unload from storage/building or load to storage/building, but it can NOT do both. Therefore if you wish to transfer from building to building, you must use exactly two loaders. This is true regardless of the distance between the buildings and regardless of whether or not you use any transport belts. This is notably different from inserters, where a single one can go from building to building(/storage).
The mod has a help page dedicated to loaders, I feel that this would have been a great place to mention such a thing....!
This detracted from my enjoyment of this mod while I worked to figure this out, however subtracting a real number from infinity still results in this mod deserving infinity stars out of 5. Anyway, I will go back to enjoying it. Thanks again for everything.