Could there be a few settings added to adjust the recipe cost?
Mainly the amount of inserters used when /not/ also using Bob's?

I find 8 Fast / Filter Inserters per Yellow Loader rather overkill.
But this is the only good loader mod which also doesn't make them magically power-self-sufficient. (vanilla reasons, I know)

The default recipe is for 6 fast inserters per yellow belt. If you try to empty a yellow belt with fast inserters before inserter stack size research, you will find that it does in fact take 6 fast inserters to fill or empty a yellow belt without gaps.

Ok, that's a fair point, but getting the first stack upgrade for all inserters isn't THAT hard and it already doubles their through put.

I could lock yellow miniloaders behind the hand size tech, and then they would require 4 fast inserters instead of 6 fast inserters. Here are the techs required to get the first inserter hand capacity upgrade for fast inserters that aren't required to get miniloaders:

Logistic science pack
Engine
Automation 2
Logistics 2
Fuild handling
Oil processing
Plastics
Advanced electronics
Stack inserter
Inserter capacity bonus
Inserter capacity bonus 2

It's kind of a lot, and would put yellow miniloaders locked behind where red miniloaders are currently in the tech tree, fairly deep into green science, instead of available with red science.

I vote against this. The cost is good as it is -- number of inserters required = number that would be required to empty that color of belt without any hand size upgrades.