Steve's Design philosophy kinda goes against anything being "Infinite" because it doesnt drive expansion anymore then.
Which I agree with on the first galnce, but it does not work in reverse:
since you cannot regain all the elements used when scrapping ships/structures, I have to argue that this design philosophy is flawed or otherwise incomplete.
I wouldn't mind not getting all the wealth back - it is a renewable resource, to a certain extent (population as well).
But,
I DO MIND when I lose non-renewable resources, without a way to get them back!
Back to that infinite... not all players even want to expand indefinitely - so why force this on us all?
I mean, sure, generally empires can only exist when they are expanding and acquiring new resources, and once they stop, they enter the start of collapse phase.
We don't really have any idea of how ecologically and environmentally (un)friendly the TN element mining and exploitation efforts are, I guess for most of the players the environment issues are at the bottom of their priority list, but we're dealing with a simulation here, and environment is important.
Lastly, even if the resources are made renewable, you can still make that you gain them in so little amounts, that you have to expand regardless, since the amount you acquire via renewable means are next to irrelevant. So, I believe you can still have both.