I'm pretty early on; but:
1): I'm using space age + quality.
2): I hand-feed power packs to a box (I am currently operating under the assumption that a healthy handful of stacks will last a reasonably long time so long as I recharge them)
3): I have 2 very-short trains (1 wagon) on very-short lines atm, and 4 chargers right now but I know this will grow quickly---I am finding I have at least twice what is probably needed based on observations.
4): I have quality modules on all the chargers and I'm filtering them---I intend to eventually dedicate one of the chargers to a higher quality, but atm their too rare to do that (But with the quality modules on the chargers, their effectively being upgraded the more I use them).
Its worth noting that even with just bottom-rung normal-quality quality modules, you still have double (2%) the chance of getting higher-quality power packs then you are of destroying them (1%). Considering they have 25% more per tier and you can just move the destroyed modules into a reserved crate, its not that big of a deal IMO
interestingly, once you are north of 4% chance, you actually are statistically IMPROVING the module per-use since your more likely to upgrade the module by 25% (by a factor of 4) then you are of destroying it. That said, obviously once the quality is maxed out its back to the normal way of things and obviously the 1% of destruction is "one way" (at least without an entirely different cycling) so in the long run this isn't true.....you STILL need to eventually setup pack-restoration---but oddly, you keep the quality steps.
that said, I think its actually a kinda interesting take on the "quality" mechanic---its some weird quirk of the power packs engineering that makes them generally more efficient after a few power cycles (legit a thing even! although usually its because the power manager knows the upper/lower limits of that particular pack better after a single cycle and after that no improvement....and its not a whopping 25%_per_tier.....).
