I feel a correct solution would be to unlock a research topic upon an item hitting base inventory.
EDIT still I feel even that would be too much of railroading. but that's up to mod authors in any case.
EDIT2: it's not like one can't ruin a game in a thousand other ways. why pick this one for a fix and leave the others.
and if one fixes all of them, it's railroading and results in a boring slideshow.