The materials grind has certainly been lessened by some amount in 3.0, but I can think of one minor UI addition that would make things just a little easier. The idea sort of comes from Fallout 4, in which you can tag some materials for search. Here, I don't think making the canisters or rocks glow a little would help as much. Instead, this would just add a distinct icon to the material's name wherever it pops up, such as in mission rewards and contacts. This would make locating just the material you want a little bit easier.
Then again, this is probably a silly idea that wouldn't really do much anyways.
Then again, this is probably a silly idea that wouldn't really do much anyways.