Also, early on, 50 sectoweed to hire hybrids is A LOT in most cases. You're basically going to have to run a set of plantations to get any kind of reliable recruiting of Hivers which other routes don't have to worry about, just purchase with cash and go.
And running Plantations is a massive faff that I know I couldn't be bothered with; I really think they should just trigger periodic monthly harvest events rather than making us constantly do the deconstruct tango. 
Yeah pretty much this, it makes the early-mid game much more challenging when you don't have an easy source of recruits and don't have time/resources to set up a plantation economy while also getting all the other early-game techs you need. I'm seriously considering pushing hard for Lok'naars just to have something more reliable than garbage peasant girls to back up my Uber Gals.