Hmm, personally I feel like there has to be some downside to using AI cores for all the advantages they bring aside from the annoying pathers who bother you for free port/heavy industry anyway. Even a few beta cores can massively drive up profits by putting them on your highest upkeep buildings. It just so happens that the downside is either a minor payoff, because the raid is much more costly comparatively, or you lose accessibility due to hostile factions, either way it helps hem in AI profitability. Even with these penalties though, I feel like I hear much more about people abusing AI cores then not just due to the massive payouts.
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Also, people really don't seem to mind the Alpha admin setback of not being able to replace them after administrating for a given time, though considering they have all 3 admin skills maxed having a permanent master admin isn't a big deal other than permanent AI raids so I feel like there's going to be a bit more with that line of events.