I've been playing this modpack too. The keyword that's been stuck in my brain for 80% of the time is: "Tedious"

It took me like 3 hours to find a Chalcopyrite... and that was after I learned how the oregen worked. My map had 30+ waypoint markers (1 for each 3x3 chunk region...) by the time I finally found some (and countless broken pickaxes). If I ever see another Oilsands I'll scream.

Ore processing isn't any fun. It's slow and tedious. The blast furnace takes an absurd amount of bronze and is once again, slow and tedious.

I could use Thaumcraft and cheese my way through (you can make 1 iron into 1 steel just using a cobblestone furnace, some candleberries, and some charcoal...) but eh, once you've done Thaum once, you kinda don't want to do it again

I'm still carrying on though... because when I do achieve something, it's actually satisfying. Unlike on a non-gregtech pack where I have more or less infinite stuff within 2 days of playing and the power generation of a dyson sphere.

I do have a question though for anyone else familiar with this modpack.

Do solar steam boilers lose their potency after a while?