why not?
for me the research side of the game was always the same... ship hulls + physics, then shields and beam weapons
obviously a few others, but it was mainly this, then build the same style ships over and over again.
I like the fact that this gives the game almost a open endness, and the fact that mods will be brilliant...
I am thinking of hulls that get bigger and bigger (in game called minimturisation, despite being bigger :S), then components getting infinitely more powerful with increase in weight or get smaller if hulls dont get bigger...
what I am trying to say is that tech will be endless and you will have to assign propor research colonies along with the normal running of the empire and always research new tech and constantly build new designs.
I really really like it!
when I say research colonies, I used to in SEIV build endless colonies that are just for research to get max research quickly, then scrap and build normally... dont know if I was the only one, but I very often, even on some of the big mods, got ALL research done within 100 turns
edit - just looked, weapon mounts get more and more powerful whilst costing the same.... it is just brilliant having almost endless tech and the stock game will probably be brilliant let alone any mod!