Alternative recipe at some point (you will see) change item count needed for build. So if the item need at start 3 things and you think 'OMG this factory for 4 items is to big for this' after time you discover recipe that do the same thing but use only 2 items... and from there you can build smaller factory.
If there this will be a 'norm' for all tech tree items depends only what visions have CS studio. And we need wait for development ends.
So there is your answer at this time :).