Promethion seems like it's not very useful once you've built a few special research buildings (unless you're the onyx).
If you don't need to build ships then you can spam research projects. If you do need to build ships then just sell them to the galactic bazaar to fund your war effort.
I've had the opposite problem. If there is no promethion available then it is very difficult to boost your research. You can't even build a Torian Academy without it now. In my last game there was none in my starting sector. I guess my only hope was rushing the galactic bazaar.
This brings me back to my other point that the RNG-based research mechanic is infuriating. At any one time there is really only one meaningful technology. If I don't get lucky on the 4-5 choices then I can either reroll until I get something on that path or I can just pick with ambivalence. Neither way is fun, neither is interesting, I hate it. There is already a mechanic for getting techs for free from randomness. Just lean into that, get rid of the pointless picking every few turns, let us see the whole tree, pick one tech to rush, let the RNG occur behind the scenes (so you might or might not get your desired tech), and let us get on with our lives. I kind of like the idea of tech awards being largely random. Being handed random techs that you wouldn't ordinarily go for could make things more interesting by giving you an incentive to try out new things.
