Excellent analysis, Something that I too have noticed when it comes to ship performance.
In my designs pre-centre certain materials are delegated to specific blocks.
Trinium - Gyro, Crew Quarters, Thrusters, Engines, Cargo, Armour, Integrity Fields.
Xanion - Generators, Energy storage, Shields, Hyperspace Core.
The reason for Crew quarters and Cargo blocks being Trinium is due to there being no benefit from higher tiered materials thus
the best Mass to Volume material is used.
If you only have early materials available though use Titanium/Naonite in place of Trinium/Xanion.