Hi there Arumba. Thank you for voicing your thoughts, I appreciate the feedback.
That entity (Research Center, I presume) is strictly not something you need to build. Auto Research will work just as it used to even if you don't build it and just continue using the mod as before.
As for why I made it more complicated then the primary reason was that Research Queue does not seem to be maintained anymore. As I write this Research Queue isn't updated for Factorio 0.14, and users have to modify the mod themselves to make it work (even though it's as simple as changing "factorio_version" in info.lua).
Another reason was that in AR 0.7.0 and earlier I set up some default technologies (Automation, Logistics, etc.) that I (and presumably many others) want to research first. I didn't really like this approach. One solution to this is of course just to remove it, but I still fancy the idea that you somehow should be able to tell Auto Research what to research first.
And a third reason was that one user requested the possibility to avoid certain technologies (for example military stuff in a non-biter game). Previously this was only possible by modifying the config.lua file for the mod, now you can do it in the Research Center by setting the signal value of an item or technology to 0.
The Research Center entity really should be thought of as nothing else than a "settings module" (much like the one you find in the Robot Army mod). I called it "Research Center" rather than "Auto Research Settings Module" (or something along those lines) as I intended to make it seem more thematic to the game (and then I realized I don't possess any artistic skills and just made it a purple lab). It's quite possible this was a bad decision on my part.
These were my reasons for the change. I still believe having settings in the game as an entity is a better solution than not having any settings at all, keeping them in the mod files or adding a button in the GUI.
I'd like to hear from you again (or anyone else) on this matter. I agree with your sentiment that this mod should be low thought and "just work". I intent to make AR work just like it used to even if you completely ignore the new entity, but I still believe adding some (optional) control through a settings module is an improvement to the mod.
