I think this idea is relevant to this discussion, so I'm going to repost it here.
I think it would be good to disable the ability to reclaim small map elements (trees and small rocks) manually.
There should be a class of reclaimable that is passive reclaim only.
By this I mean that those elements should still be reclaimable through patrol and attack move, but not by manual clicking.
My motivation for wanting this change is to reduce the mindless click spam that occurs early in game... but it will also have the effect of reducing the net mass/energy gained via reclaim... so I think it fits in with the suggestions made in this post as well.
The mindless click spam is an indication of a bad game mechanic, if both players on many maps are forced to literally click tiny rocks or trees dozens or hundreds of times... that's an indication that something has gone terribly wrong.
Large changes to reclaim will have large impacts on the game, perhaps this one is small enough to fly... and it would perhaps kill two birds with one stone.
Early reclaim has a lessened role early on, and the need for clickspam disappears completely. Many of us in the community are getting older, no need to have a mechanic that is just asking for carpal tunnel injuries.