The problem right now is not with wealth, but the use of the kernel in a few weeks. In terms of research people might catch up (It just a matter of getting a supply of the right kernels) and produce and items before anyone else.
However the drones kernels and such will be useless in a few weeks or days. It might be faster and cheaper to just buy the items and reverse engineer that. This might also happen to higher end kernels later on in the game.
It makes sense that if your the right to research something you should benefit of it by being the first to produce it and place it on the market or sell it internally. Selling it on the market means people will start to produce it as well, whatever researched or not. The first one is the biggest problem, the second one is something also solved by this.
By making it so that you get a bonus when you have something at 100% when producing it you make it so that it will still be useful for starting developers to research and buy kernels and therefor it will still be viable for fighter to sell them.
It also means that if you have it researched 100% you will still have an edge over those who simply buy your item and reverse engineer it. You will have the bonus and might be able to produce it cheaper and faster then them.
PS: Maybe instead of a production bonus give people who have not researched it a penalty. Make it so that for a item you need a decoder level one, they need a decoder level two to reverse engineer it. However this would not work with items with a decoder level 10, then again would be fun if you could only reverse engineer them if you have researched it.
). When you have an item at 100% then give the person a production bonus. It would make sense that if you know 100% how something works you be able to produce it way faster and more efficient. This would mean that even in 5 years, people will still be in need of drone kernels and it puts the "and" back in R&D!
