It is too difficult to setup hull upgrade techs, especially for new players

So, in my current game, I am 43 techs into the game, and still playing with Tiny-hulled ships.  This is even though I want to upgrade my Plinko-class warships to something that can actually matter.  That's priority 1. For a new player, it's virtually impossible to even find the techs that upgrade hulls, even though they are critically important.  The tech library does not help finding them in any way.  

Artifical gravity, orbital manufacturing...  Okay that's great, but not obvious at all for newer players and pretty hard to setup even for players who know what they are doing.  I could try to beeline, except that there are so few techs to choose from vs how many there are and every tech you unlock just unlocks more techs to *not* give you hulls.  I know there are only so many words for "small" in the thesaurus, but I feel like based on the number of techs in the game and the inability to choose which ones you want, you may want to add more hull sizes/techs and an obvious hull/miniaturization tech line just for *clarity's* sake.  Another option, provide more tech choices.  Even the five with tech minister isn't enough to reliably beeline anything.