The issue I see with the points system, (this one and ones previously mentioned) is that currently there are to many items that are cross faction. Many items in the game for example armor plates can be researched through many different paths of research. What will you do for these?

I Use armor plates as an example **

If I have only 4 point pools Green, Red, Blue and Brown where do armor plates go?
If armor plants can get gained through any point pool then how will it balance when killing T4 indy mech is much easier than killing T4 (color) Mech?

In the system you describe will, I think throw the current balance way off. Why?
•    Because those who are not finished with their tech will only focus on the items they choose over learning everything at what could be describe an even pace. Why is this not good? Because like we saw with the current release of the EW tuners, people who had finished all of the old tech were able to get the new tech pretty quick but those who were still not close did not get t4 right away. The new tech just mixed in with the old tech.
•    When the next wave of new modules comes out if there was a point system in place it would encourage everyone to hoard point to just be the first to produce the new T4/5/6 modules. When new modules come into the game I personally feel it should be some time before they are on every PVP Mech in the t4 or higher variant. With the point system you can have the newest t4 the same day as the patch rolls out.   
I agree there needs to be a better way to do research but the point systems provided thus far are still falling short.

I think a more balanced system looks like this:
As you research Kernels you can choose the area of tech to gain, Example : I research 100 Green (any size) kernels I can choose from:
Mechs
Ammo
Weapons
Ewar
Electronics
Engineering
Nexus
etc . . .
The research from that 100 kernels goes into the “area of research” that I want it to. So people can tailor their researchers into specific areas of research.

If I have completed the EWar area of research then when the new modules comes out I would be able to continue in that area towards the new items.

What this prevents compared to a pure point system is, someone who is specializing in let’s say green weapon tech to complete a new ECM tuner right away by  buying X~number of blue kernels.  . Instead he will have to do the required research in the Blue EWar research area before being able to prototype the new modules.

Whatever the new system is it needs to be balanced in a way that acknowledges all the work that has been done thus far and requires substantial work going forward. I would have a huge problem with new players in the research profession being able to with pin point accuracy research one module to T4 without having to learn other items that are in the same tech area as the one he desires.

I see no reason why kernels would need to be nerfed *again* because of a research point system.

The player still needs to have the kernels just like you do now. The only change would be the player can now choose an area to focus what the kernel unlocks. You would still need to unlock the t1 item before the t2 and so on.

This is one of the areas of the game I feel that is missing player choice.

Well i thought about this whole thing as well and i came up with an idea that could work, however i than scrapped it since i thought it would be too difficult to balance properly and also too complicated. Despite that i will share it with you...who knows maybe something good will come of it.

The basic Idea is also that you get points for kernels, however not just one big pool, but 9 (1 Structure, 4 Small[indu,blue,yellow;green] and 4 medium).

You would then have a research tree with tiers. The higher the tier, the more points you have to invest to unlock the technology. This way, unlocking essential items like mining modules would take far less work than unlocking items that benefit groups like nexus modules or remote equipment. Furthermore any item could have various prerequisites to be unlocked.

Every technology is also tied to one of 4 groups (small, medium, structure or independent) and 6 subgroups (mentioned before blue yellow green indu structure and universal).

To unlock a technology you have to use your points. The group of the technology and the group of the points have to match(except for independent, they will have different prices for every group) so you can only unlock structure technologies with structure points etc. The subgroups work a bit different: If you want to unlock a "blue" technology but you have only "green" points, you can do so, but you will have to invest twice(or any other value) the number of points. Universal technologies can be unlocked with any subgroup(except for structure, they are separate).

Examples:

1.) LWF: Independant, Universal: Can be unlocked with any points except structure, has different prices for small and medium groups.

2.) Medium EM-Gun: Medium, Blue: Can be unlocked with medium blue points or medium yellow/green/indu points for a higher price.

3.) Medium armor plate: medium, universal: can be unlocked with any medium points.

If such a system is introduced existing knowledge bases could be "refunded" with the new prices in mind. This way also partly unlocked items would be converted into points. You would be able to instantly unlock everything you had unlocked before and possibly a bit more.

The system could also be extended with diminishing returns so that unlocking a technology from a tier makes all other technologies of this tier more expensive. The total costs to unlock everything would always be the same but the way getting there would be dictated by the current needs.

Another good point of such a system would be that it does still encourage trade of kernels while it also allows "single-players" to work towards unlocking just stuff that it is important for them.

So far my brainfart on that matter...