Imperial Scientists: "So we created these awesome Machines that can mine Resources from a Planet very quickly and build new Warmachines out of them. With that, we can solve a lot of Supply-Issues and-"
Palpatine: "So bigger Versions of them can strip Worlds of all their resources and and completely destroy them within a few Hours?"
Imperial Scientists: "...W-well, technically yeah, but that would be pretty wasteful-"
Palpatine: "Build these bigger Versions and test them on some random inhabited Worlds."
Imperial Scientists: "B-but-"
Palpatine: "DID I FUCKING STUTTER?!?"
Sometimes, the Problem really is just how the higher-ups decide to use things...
Right? World Devastators could have totally revolutionized the logistics of Galactic Civilization, and the best thing Clone Palps can think of to do with them is turn them into terror weapons. And the fact that the New Republic captured a couple of them, then scuttled them to score political points is just... I facepalm so hard when I think of the abject stupidity surrounding the use of the most groundbreaking tech the Star Wars galaxy had ever seen. Seriously, they were superior in almost every respect to the Rakatan Star Forge. Same basic principle, but no Dark Side corruption tearing at the sanity of the people running it, totally mobile, and completely capable of self-upgrading and self-replicating. They could have ushered in a new golden age for the galaxy, but instead they've been relegated to being a footnote on the list of Dastardly Imperial Superweapons...