Things we'd like to see in the next patch

[Suicide Junkie]

Perhaps the spaceyard 2's are just that much better than not having a space yard.

Space yards ARE affected by the population modifiers.
Take a look at the abilities tab, and add up all those modifiers to SY rate, then multiply by the base rate of your yard.

What you might be seeing is:
Empire Base Planet Mineral Usage Rate := 500 instead of 2000.

So you only get 500 build rate until you finish your spaceyard...