Maybe experience players know this, but it would be nice to see max productivity/research/wealth before placement based on current settlement.
For example:
I just took over a colony, and I am Durantium refinery, I can either place with next to 2 basic factories, Antimatter Power Plant and a Solar power plant
Or I can place it next to 4 basic factories, Antimatter Power plant, so is 2 basic factories bonus better than Solar Powerplant bonus? I don't crunch numbers so not going to take the time to figure it out, but a city planning computer could easily do this, so the game should be able to inform me which is better.
Though the fact that the colony was poorly layed out makes me think the AI doesn't know any better.