It took me a while to fully understand the GUI in game despite it being really simple, i think it needs to somehow tell us that the most right item is 'what is missing' and then everything before is a consequence.
Maybe an option to show only the 'what is missing icon' or 2-3 icons so on angels/bobs you don't have to always look at 500 icons and scroll to see 'what is missing' but with a button to "show all".
The re-opening of the GUI will be fixed in the next version, which I will release when 0.17 is out.
I will also consider a player-specific option for the next version to only show the X last items that are missing. Sometimes there can be multiple last items missing though, for example both iron plate+ore and copper plate+ore. I guess in this case I will show both.
I also find the linear list a bit confusing. like you stated when you are missing multiple things as you can't tell what easily tell when on chain ends and 1 starts. would it be able to color code them maybe? so for example the recipe for item A has ingredients B C and D you have enough B but are missing C and D you're missing D because you don't have iron and you are missing C because you don't have Green Circuits so the UI would should C and green circuits grouped with a background color and D and Iron with a back ground color?