can the items needed for the machine be listed next to the steps to build the machine.

Desperately seconded. We have no idea what the components of a given multiblock are as it stands.

edit: going into 2D mode allows you to mouseover blocks. A list of exact blocks would be ideal (similar to Astral Sorcery as mentioned above), but players are able to get by, which is critical.

A preview when the blueprint is in the controller, might be nice

Just throwing on a late addition to this - could be similar to how Astral has the shining star in the journal where if you hover over it, it lists blocks that the machine needs, but could be a gear instead. The gear also dynamically could change the list depending on what Y level of the overhead view of the machine is being viewed in the blueprint.

Added to master suggestion ticket. Archiving this ticket thread.