MB your partly right, and then again i see Crystallurgy as this little late-game advantage that can bring you victory. Cheap armour, both one-of-the-best long-range weapons in the game and the one-of-kind armor-skipping weapon. Plus the facilities. Realize Crystallurgy has too many unique abilities in it
it does not however replace the other technologies as organic or others do, it simply enriches your tactical arsenal. And with DNM's crystalline torpedoes.... :big evil grin: