I suspect for anyone not playing Thea, especially Thea 2, this lingo makes little sense. I’ve been playing these games for hundreds of hours each, and I still can’t remember the exact wording sometimes.
That research though is more than useful for just extra points, which is super useful because you need a lot of points for the higher tiered resources and anything with the settlements.
I am not a huge fan of the way Steam store Change Logs but I could’ve sword the auto-resolve was affected by creatures researched, like you do better with auto-resolve against the creatures you research. I only use Auto-resolve again groups I am familiar with (read multiple encounters with current group), and that have perfect results to speed up play, mostly MP. I often, not always, do better than auto-resolve, especially prior to research.