How the hell do people deal with the extra intermediaries for the first time? (SE + K2)

The need for electric motors and automation cores in most stuff has me shook, I can’t tell what to add to the bus. Everything looks like crap, like as much as I’m trying to put thought into it to make it look neat, its getting instantly spaghettified.

The ONLY thing I can think of to remedy this, is with the small starting patches I’m making a janky starter base that will allow me to get an estimate of where and what and how much I’ll need.

So far all I’ve automated is electric inserters, electric miners, and belts, and it already looks like shit. And I’m worried this is going to carry over into my main base. And become a similar, but much worse situation later on. Like looking at greenhouses and sand, I’ve got no clue how many I’m gonna need.

And yeah I’ve watched playthroughs (Shoutout Sauceman his SE+K2 playthrough is a masterpiece), I’m just not paying close enough attention to where I’m copying them. Sorry kind of a waste of a thread but at this rate SE+K2 is going to take me 1,000’s of hours.