First, I want to say, I absolutely love the mod and its insanity!
I'm still only a few hours into a game, and it's been very fun.
(Having to setup feedback loops and byproduct handling at red science is mad.)

But as I unlock alternative recipes, they all seem worse.
For example, Steel Basic Tubing is 1:4 compared to Iron Basic Tubing at 2:4, but steel is worth 3 iron + 3 manganese, so it takes more iron and requires a additional supply of manganese.
Another example is Gold Heat-resistant plating, compared to Copper Heat-resistant plating, as both are 2:2, but gold processing is more complex and resource-intensive.

My suggestion would be (when you have time), to do a second pass at the alternative recipes, and give them better ratios to account for complexity, or even in some cases, to outright remove them, as forcing players to maintain production of all elements seems more interesting.

Some of the metals have alternate recipes that you unlock later. Like with steel, once you get Vanadium you can make 3x as much steel from the same amount of iron and manganese! And vanadium is a free byproduct of oil processing.
You're definitely right about the gold though. I don't think it makes much sense unless you somehow have no copper but lots of transition metal ore lying around.

remembered this thread even existed, completely forgot to respond (havent had time nor mental capacity for much dev work) - you arent wrong! i plan to give it all a look over, but chulldozer is also correct - alternative recipes become better once you have better processes (which im perfectly fine with)
i also plan to add a whole bunch of extra recipes for new elements, which i havent done in a while