Idea: Good's Quality

Introductory:
I first came up with this idea while reading The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk. In the book, the British envoys used their superior goods to sway the Central Asian Khanates over to their side and against the Russians.
At first I thought that adding quality to goods would be neat, but not worth it. Overtime, I have come to a conclusion on how to implement it in a way that would improve gameplay and solve issues.

Idea: Good's Quality.

Each building would produce its goods at a certain quality. Starting at 0, and going up by 10 (10 because because generally the end-goal would be 100, but this doesn't need to be capped). The quality of an output good is based on its input goods. For example, a Motor Industries with the Steam Engines PM would input Steel at quality 10, and output engines at quality 10. If you select "Electric Engines" or "Diesel Engines" PM, it would require a steel quality of 40, and still output a good quality of 40. If you then have an "Automotive Industries", it would require Engines at quality 60, and output them at quality 60.

The quality of an output good is based on the least quality input good, in addition to any bonuses given from the building/PM itself. Where this gets interesting is the amount of things that could affect the added quality. I will list some ideas later on.

The final demand for high-quality goods, would be whatever consumes good. Higher wealth pops would consume higher quality goods. Higher level military units require higher level firearms. Later game items, such as automobiles, require higher quality steel, and higher quality engines. Troops would get a base increase in attack & defense for having higher quality goods inputted to them. Higher quality engines would further decrease the amount of labors needed (For labor saving PMs). Higher quality tools would increase base efficiency.
More wealthy pops would require higher level goods to say loyal. I'm sure there's more benefits we could come up with.

Detailed Example: Automobiles
Automobiles are a late-game item and should be difficult to produce. Requiring lots of high-quality materials. Automotive Industries would require a base quality of say 80. Each good it consumes would require engines at quality of 80. These Automotive Industries would output at a quality of 80 + any modifiers. Because the capitalist class have the highest wealth, they would import automobiles in from whichever country has the highest quality automobiles. This would make it so countries not only compete to produce the most automobiles, but small countries like Belgium could get rich by producing the highest quality automobiles.

Resource Goods: Rubber, Iron, Tea
Resource Goods could be represented in two ways. I will describe both here.
A. No Quality on resource goods
Goods such as rubber would need an intermediary building, such as a "Rubber Industries", which would produce Rubber Product at a certain quality, but it would be able to intake rubber at any quality. Thus, being imported from all over the world and turned into something useable.
B. Quality = Quantity
Example: Iron Mines would produce Iron Ore at quality 0. This would be consumed by steel mills to produce a low amount of steel at quality 20. A different iron mine, would produce iron ore at quality 30. This iron ore would be consumed by a steel mill, to produce a high amount of steel, at quality 20. The input quality of the iron would simply increase the amount of steel produced, at the same quality. The steel mills quality would be based on other factors.

I prefer option B. This would make certain states even more valuable, not just by the maximum amount of resources built, but by the quality of the ore as well. For example, during the 1890s Rubber boomed from the congo. But it soon crashed as other rubber farms were far more efficient and had higher quality rubber.

What could increase quality:
A. Education/Literacy of workers
B. Different Production PMs
C. Different Purple PMs
D. Events
E. Longevity of the industry/amount produced total
F. Decrees
G. Unlocked Techs
H. Company bonuses
I. Use construction to improve a building? (It would give a way for a player to focus on a single industry)
J. Acceptance of workers
K. Different laws
L. Loyalists/Radicals?

What quality is used for directly
A. Demand based on Pop Wealth
B. Increases the price of a product (higher quality = more expensive, but still required)?
D. Troop bonuses from high quality good consumption
E. "Prestige" goods makes more sense
F. Adding more interesting gameplay
G. Increases value of pops long term

What problems does this solve:
A. Comparative advantage. The player isn't just trying to produce the maximum amount of all goods, and can focus on a few.
B. Protectionism finally has a use. You would be forced to input higher quality goods than your own unless you use protectionist policies to increase the industry locally.
C. Countries like China or Russia are now at a disadvantage because they cannot product high-quality firearms.
D. Late-game economy stalls because once you run out of pops. This will be something to increase each pops GDP output.
E. Stops migration from being the crux of a players game. Because it increases the GDP value of pops late game, immigration is less important (It still is, but I hate when its the only thing to focus on).
F. Stops building huge industries overseas. If I have investment rights in China, it doesn't make sense that I can spam automotive industries to produce cars. (At least not in the 1800s).

Lag Concerns:
I don't think this would lag the game much. From my understanding, the crux of this game isn't the amount of goods, its the amount of pops.
If needed, we could rework luxury and prestige goods. In a sense, this just expands upon the prestige good's system. Instead of each good getting one prestige good, it would have a range of qualities for the same good. I would prefer that this discussion not focus on performance issues. Not because its not important, but because only the developers would know how their implementation of this would affect the game, not us mere mortals.

Summary:
Goods would have a quality associated with it. This quality would be a requirement for certain PMs to function. Higher quality goods would give a benefit to the country they are consumed in, leading to higher demand, higher prices, and higher SOL. This would fix the late game as it would give the player something to focus on.

Thank you :)