did you try to paint 1000 pipes before the paint gun came along? I think it compensates for the effort it would otherwise take to paint your base properly. But it is not realistic, just like a refrigerator size battery can store as much power as an AAA size battery.

Feature

Never painted anything anyway

Clearly a bug, and commonly exploited because it is just simply faster. They can patch it when they make an paint gun. Inventory space is really the big issue. I often have a locker full of all the spray paint I use wherever I'm building.

i think this is a bug. I try hard to avoid this. i hope in the future different paint are not stackable or don't lost their identity. whit this you need only 1 paint per color for the most items.

This is how I paint all my cables and pipes in my base. Saves on paint, especially in early game before you can make it

Works with all stackable and paintable objects. Very nice FEATURE to save some paint.

Feature.

its been like that for 2-3 years i think. I dont know if its a feature or a bug, but I love it ;-)
- maybe its a little bit cheating since you only have to paint 1 pipe and then you can just you stack them and change colour for free forever..
= you dont need allot of paint.

It's convenient and non-game breaking; It's an emergent feature