I think the problem isn't so much that one could do X, Y, or Z in order to get a tech. It's that the things that are actually happening, i.e. 'this race adores me, but they won't give me or sell me the secrets of antigravity dishwashers', or 'I just spent 2 years helping them research nuclear toasters but then they had a sudden breakthrough and I get nothing for it' don't make any logical sense. Players are going to expect game interactions to make logical sense (unless they're given in-universe reasons for why obvious things don't work that way), and if those seemingly obvious fail players are going to assume the game is bugged or flawed. And most of them aren't going to come here asking for crumbs of wisdom on the roundabout way of doing things, they're just going to say 'oh yeah that game looks fun but it's got aggravating mechanics, I'm going to tell my 500 friends not to buy it' and then no one is happy.