When making complex objects, using duplicate Self chips, reroute, Get Property, etc., help keep the circuits easier to follow and organize. This uses up more chips. If you want to clone that object multiple times, the number of chips increases significantly. Higher limit, please!
I think the issue here is moreso your own optimisation. Some chips you should look into using to cut down on chip count are for/for each (lets you run an execution multiple times at once for things like setting all of a list of text components to a certain value, for example), the 4 switch chips (execution switch for when you want one chip to be able to pick between doing several different things depending on a string or int, or value switch for when you want to do just one thing but want to be able to change the values used to one of many different options), and functions (used for identical chunks of circuits that you use often, or to basically tell the game “this circuit here is important, remember it so i can clone a 1-chip copy of the whole thing wherever i want but using different input values”)
Those are all definitely ways to optimize. In this picture, I got rid of reroutes, comments, duplicate Selfs, etc., and managed to knock back some chips. The circuit tends toward unmainatainable, but uses less chips. This particular circuit is a submarine bridge simulator ship - It is handling everything: boarding, power, docking, speed adjustments, collision, status display, forward/reverse, stabilization/upside down, steering, emergency stop, weaponry/steering trigger grabbing and auto-pickup, engineering seat rotation, elevator and exploration points (in the main ship), ship reset, navigation objectives and direction/depth HUD, sounds, ambience, and a DJ music changer. It runs surprisingly well. In your list, the only thing I haven’t used is the for / for each chips. I wrote my own to add a cpu overheat prevention slowdown. There are message senders/receivers to make sure the ship authority is the one making changes.
This is what it is currently looking like. The last picture was a little old. It also handles directional emitters when underway (negligible circuits, but I’m sure I’m forgetting some other feature too). It’s also got spam-click prevention on buttons, authorization-checks, and should-it-be-allowed checks (that weird vertical grid on the right mostly for engineering commands). I’m also using color for key circuit boards (red for room events like loaded or update, green for objects, etc.).
I’m sure there are some things that might be optimized and some points where I do things that can be done easier, but it’s not bad for something that can be operated by 1-6 people.