For when you really just don't want that dude HERE but don't care if he plays - Paper plugin built for 1.16.5 Minecraft - Anti-grief tool built for players, not mods.
While this can be done via the crafting table menu like refueling is done, however since essence is utilized to refuel pearls, I don't believe it could be used to upgrade. I think it'd be easier just to have it so you can make an "upgrade material" in a factory of some sort, that takes the mana cost and instead have that be the upgrade material. This would be the simple and easy method that I could do for you. Or you could do the hard thing and make a new command in EssenceGlue that allows you to run /ep upgrade and eats the mana that way.
While this can be done via the crafting table menu like refueling is done, however since essence is utilized to refuel pearls, I don't believe it could be used to upgrade. I think it'd be easier just to have it so you can make an "upgrade material" in a factory of some sort, that takes the mana cost and instead have that be the upgrade material. This would be the simple and easy method that I could do for you. Or you could do the hard thing and make a new command in EssenceGlue that allows you to run /ep upgrade and eats the mana that way.