Core idea: At one corner of the GUI for hoppers, dispensers, and droppers have a red/black indicator "LED" circle that updates live and shows whether the examined block is currently being powered.
Expanded idea: Symbols in the GUIs next to the LEDs.
* Hoppers: The "black" LED can have a symbol of an open padlock next to it and the "red" LED can have a closed padlock, to show when the hopper is locked.
* The symbol next to the "black" LED may be an hourglass to indicate that the block is waiting to be triggered and the "red" LED can have a tick symbol to indicate that the block has already attempted to dispense.
Motivation:
The experienced redstone crafter can look at a circuit and tell which blocks are powered. But a redstone novice, who is barely learning about powering through solid blocks and hopper mechanics, can have trouble figuring out what is going on in a circuit and almost certainly needs to consult wikis or tutorials. This idea would provide a bit of assistance with debugging. The idea also teaches new players that hoppers actually do interact with redstone signals, because otherwise there is no audio or visual indication that they do so.
I also think that existing forms of indication (redstone dust and lamps) are not enough because sometimes you don't have space to place them and even when you do, they cannot be located in the exact same coordinates as the blocks you are having trouble with unless you physically replace the block each time.
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