Something I noticed when reading the description for Stingfrond is it seems to have a reference to being a source for Carbon Fiber. I think it would be cool to honor that by adding them to the recipe for Carbon Fiber. I'd been planning on doing that when I get around to making the watercane agri mod, but I'd definitely defer to Stingfronds if installed :)

So during one of the Gleba Friday Fact posts by the devs, originally they had each plant doing a different job (And as you found, you can still see some of the original intent in the lua code). However they eventually opted for just two plants, and everything is derived from those instead. The reason is that they stated that having different things from from different trees is that they tried it, and it turned out boring. They found it was more interesting to go the route in the game now, where two plants combine in various ways to give you all.

I can appreciate this line of attack the devs took, and Its for this reason that my mods take the following design philosophy:
Whilst I want all the Gleba plants to harvestable, the outputs should be unique compared to the base game, and should add something, rather than replace or give alternatives.
Boompuff - flamethrower gas / military science / rockets
Slipstack - Infinite stone (sorely needed for Gleba starts, also note this was going to be a lubricant source in the Lua)
Stingfrond - unique bullets and nutrients

Hence why I didn't incorporate Carbon fiber into stingfronds at all, and purposefully, as doing so would either make the original recipe redundant, (which is a really simple to achieve from Yumako mash + spoilage anyway). Or be not as useful itself, as you can already get carbon fibre from your existing factorio processes. Either way, you're not "adding" anything fun per se.

So hopefully all that rant is a satisfactory explanation for you as to why I wont be adding in a Stingfrond carbon fibre recipe without much more careful play testing and consideration (and probably not at all) and why I believe its more a better honor to those Lua comments to try something completely different gameplay wise haha.

EDIT: I just realized, while it nullifies none of our points at all, I just realized I think we misunderstood that I was suggesting modifying the Carbon Fiber recipe to have Nettles as an ingredient, while I believe you were talking about making Stingfrond yield carbon fiber when produced or processed. I could be wrong there, simply realized that after typing [gestures below]. And either way, doesn't really change much about what the devs concluded.

That actually makes a lot of sense, I really appreciate the amount of thought you've put into this and I think that's a very valid and reasonable approach.

I would be interested in play testing it to see if it does work well / add interesting complexity. My only thought when taking that all into consideration is that carbon fiber is a resource you only use after successfully creating a functional factory on Gleba, considering it's unlocked with agri science, and you also don't need much of it until late game (I haven't gotten there to know how much carbon fiber you need for foundations, quantum chips, stack inserters, etc). Cut features almost always feel a bit out-of-place when reintroduced (namely thinking of some of the mob votes for Minecraft, whose mods I've tried and only a select few I felt still fit the vibe in retrospect), but sometimes from a different lens or position in the design process those cut features can be given new life.

Again, thanks for the detailed response, I really appreciate your honest thoughts and had forgotten about those FFF comments till you brought them back up, and I definitely agree the base Gleba experience is already burdensome as-is. And honestly I just barely scraped by in my vanilla SA playthrough to the point of unlocking rocket turrets to defend my precious and vulnerable farms lol. Manufacturing a few by hand with nettles could be not-that-bad, but otherwise it'd definitely be a tricky problem to solve mass production of the stuff given nettle's short spoil time (which you've already explained thoroughly in another thread)

Yea, making mods that are actually fun, rather than just a fun idea turns out to be somewhat tricky! Haha, but I always appreciate your ideas and feedback, content is always better following solid discussions and consideration!

Currently my goal is to keep adding content to Gleba in a way that ends up with it feeling like an alternative base-game. With a gleba start as a viable and enjoyable alternative start point. I know 'Any Planet Start' makes this possible, but I aim to make it more enjoyabe =)