Less labs don't sound that appealing to me, though I absolutely agree it is the easiest solution. On the other hand it would also fundamentally alter the way the game is played as well as its pace.
Edit:
@Jorgen_CAB
What pop levels do you use? I got for +- RL ones (so usually 8b) and the game is definitely not intended for this (The scaling gets worse the more you deviate from the standard 500-1000m bracket), though this is my strong feeling, I am too bad at math and too lazy to prove this.
Like I have to reduce research rate to about 15% (still slightly above the default rate given the number of labs I get), but the scientist % bonus as well as lab bonus (is there a max? I have no idea what it is and how hard it is to get there) sure must have a ceiling. Minerals are the biggest problem though, I can burn through my heavily % increased minerals on Earth in less than 20 years from game start (all of them, the least numerous ones much sooner) and there is no setting for galaxy mineral generation, only Earth. Though this probably requires its own topic, I might start one once I am done with my latest game (first real pop game in C).
In my last I only started with about 2 billion on my faction and 2 billion as a neutral faction... I go by the reasoning that population levels are the working population so exclude children and academy students as well as elderly people... only the actual work force. So I reason that actual population can be about twice as many... especially in an advanced society such as Aurora as people will tend to enter the workforce allot later than would be more likely today.
But there is no problem with resources in my opinion... you can slow down research to such a degree that you research VERY slow... in my current game I'm at 15% research, 5% survey and 50% terraforming. Most big worlds usually have millions of tons of ore so strip-mining them is not that easy... especially if you reduce the research rate to be very low so you gain tech allot slower than a normal game. Asteroid will of course be mined allot quicker... but again your mining tech will be lower than in a normal game too. So even if you have allot of population it will be much slower to expand so you increase your labour force much slower per capita and through technology you gain less too.
For the most part it can be pretty well balanced.
I suppose you would not be against reducing OR increasing labs if it was an option just like tech rate... right?!?