I thought about how to reduce processing consumption.

I suggest a system where certain player-built functional blocks can enter three processing states: active, semi-active, and inactive. For example, an empty hopper with no relevant activity could become inactive and require almost no processing. If something nearby changes that could affect it, it could become semi-active and perform lightweight checks. When an item actually reaches it, it becomes active and performs its normal logic. The state could depend on how long the block has gone without relevant changes: active → semi-active → inactive. This would allow recently active systems to remain responsive while blocks that have been idle for a long time require almost no processing. This principle could apply to hoppers, droppers, dispensers, and other player-built automation blocks that repeatedly check for changes even when they have nothing to do. The goal is not to change their behavior, but to reduce unnecessary processing. Farms, storage systems, and item sorters could become much cheaper to simulate when idle. I leave the exact implementation to the developers, the main idea is to use three processing states—active, semi-active, and inactive—to reduce the processing load caused by continuously simulating idle player-built machinery.