The Altar Manipulator description says it will only put items in the altar if it has enough Life Essence to convert them, and perhaps it does, but if I'm dealing with a stack of items it puts the whole stack in even if there isn't enough Life Essence (perhaps it's checking to see if there's enough LP for one, rather than the total?)

Given that there is no way I know of to ensure that items go in only one at a time, this greatly reduces the usefulness of the Altar Manipulator prior to Well/Drill.