If it were involved or complex or challenging, that would be good. But in reality, generally, they are not. As such the proposition is to make the best of a bad thing.
I don't think anyone can rationally argue that the current system is in any way challenging or rewarding. I guess you could call it complex
To both these, the same can be said about pretty much ANY game, ever that is suppressible difficult or complex, so I am unsure what is expected when you say complex, note I said 'potentially' complex, I did not say it is very complex, but it is certainly more then the suggested solution.
note NeilF you also write. "just to get the right stamps" in frustration with the random part of engineers, you are expecting it to be a perfect roll? the idea last I checked that the random part is, is engineer takes your module, and experiments with it, and tries to get it to function better, generally just like engineers irl, unlike irl, where engineers discard potential unwanted results, here the engineer first presents it to you, to discard or not. Basically you are seeing the process that you would not see irl, and one of the reasons R&D can be very expensive, there are likely a lot of non perfect results. And in my book, yes it can be annoying or unwanted, but that is part of experimentation?
Also to your comment viking84, about rationalise that the system is challenging or rewarding, I thoroughly enjoy even a grade 3 upgrade to my modules, they do quite a difference, so I would say they are rewarding, compared to stock, which is what I believe you should be comparing to, to stock, not against a 'perfect' roll or a perfect grade 5 roll, if you do that, then yeah, anything but the best will likely seem like a waste of time.
As for the challenging side, again, note I am saying potentially complex, not perfectly complex, or even 'very' complex, I would absolutely love a lot more complexity, but compared to, grind and hand in material x, get rep, use rep to get x, you know, basically the way the World of Warcraft rep works, it is more complex, because the way WoW works is very...very simple.
Here you need to find the materials, to do that you need to learn where they are, and go find them, as they have said several times it isn't entirely random, it is at best guided random. And given we now have an indicator of where what can be found with survey, that information can be easier put together to figure out the rules behind the random, so you even if you aren't at a survey location can find stuff.
Is 'drive around and shoot stuff you find on ground until you get what you want' a challenging/complicated mechanic? not really no, but having to find specific stuff versus just anything to build rep, is still more involving and makes me feel it is 'earned' more then the suggestion would.
I will admit, I get the impression that people want the best mod now, when I remember how people could grind for months in other games to get a certain legendary item or similar, which seems a lot of patience has been lost somewhere, a lot of sense of effort getting rewarded has been lost, because people are in many games now getting things handed to them without really doing any effort.
Now games are played to have fun, but at least to me, there is also fun in working towards getting something that is not easy or simple to get. Instead of just getting it handed to you.
If we switch to a simple grind method with 'rep' and such without needing materials, where rep can be purely used for cost and such, then at least in my eyes where we are heading towards a point where people just want to go to engineer, click a button, get what they want, and leave again, which at least to me makes the game pointless. Kinda how some people are frustrated with the AI being able to fight near player level now, where before I could take on a wing easy without even bothering worrying in my python, now? I need to think, judge and plan depending on situation, that is fun!
They don't even have to be particularly challenging, but they should be fun. If they aren't, then at least the grind should be predictable so that the slow and steady progression is a reward in itself (like rank grinding has been). Sadly the current system is neither fun, nor predictably rewarding, so for me it is not something I even want to get started on.