The steam forge hammer as described in the quest book is incorrect.
"It can make plates at a better ratio, only requiring 1.5 ingots instead of 2 per plate"

This is incorrect since the recipe requires at least an LV tiered machine which the steam forge hammer is clearly not, additionally these recipes also feel out of tier since they can be done in inventory and/or on a stone anvil with any gt hammer.

• The [coal deposit -> 8 coal] recipe is LV.
• The [crushed _ ore -> impure pile of _ dust] recipe is LV.
• The [purified _ ore -> purified pile of _ dust] recipe is LV.

My suggestion is either to buff the steam forge hammer by reducing the requirements to these recipes to ULV (some or all), or to remove/change the incorrect information from the quest book, or entirely remove the quest since the steam forge hammer doesn't serve much purpose other than the wrought iron recipe.

Steam machines can process recipes of LV tier.

this is just how gregtech is, steam machines intentionally process LV recipes

I didn't notice that my forge hammer didn't have steam and assumed it was an oversight, I'm closing this now lol, my bad.