My understanding is that the +40u the planet shows is its Max potential, but without the Advanced Materials Collection, you can't even collect it. What'd I'd venture to guess (and I could very well be wrong) is that percentage you get from every step up in the tech tree is a percentage of the Max Potential, not what you're getting right now. If I did my math right, 3% of 40 is 1.2, so they probably just round to the nearest whole number. As a trader you can get 90% of its max potential, I believe if you max the AMC. That makes more sense to me, and I hope that's how it works. So if you can get a max bonus of 20% than you are looking at a max of 8u RO per hour on the planet you referenced. Still not great, but definitely better than 1.2. In the end, you'll still have to rely on Traders to stockpile enough RO for a sizable fleet of Super Capitals. And I don't think there is anything wrong with that. Otherwise the Warlord would be extremely Over Powered.