When a building is destroyed, its remnant is left. The remnant looks like the building and covers the same area, but only its center tiles is cursor selectable and it loses all info except for the building's original name.
In contrast, after unlocking construction robots, a destroyed building is replaced by its remnant and also its ghost. The ghost lasts 1 week or so but it has the same footprint as the building and it remembers all building settings.
To make rebuilding stuff easier before unlocking robots, remnant detection needs to be improved to cover the entire footprint. Alternatively, building ghosts can be unlocked sooner. For example there is this mod:
When a building is destroyed, its remnant is left. The remnant looks like the building and covers the same area, but only its center tiles is cursor selectable and it loses all info except for the building's original name.
In contrast, after unlocking construction robots, a destroyed building is replaced by its remnant and also its ghost. The ghost lasts 1 week or so but it has the same footprint as the building and it remembers all building settings.
To make rebuilding stuff easier before unlocking robots, remnant detection needs to be improved to cover the entire footprint. Alternatively, building ghosts can be unlocked sooner. For example there is this mod:
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Destruction_Ghosts_From_The_Start