Don't feel too bad, my first game I was well into phase 3 at least before realizing that foundations have snap points for everything you put on them... My entire factory was built on the ground until then with me wondering how in the hell people were able to set up things like the hypertube cannon so easily and precisely

I was probably near the end tiers of phase 4 before learning about the world grid and why I should have been building to it the whole time

In spite of that, the only thing I didn't achieve in that save was nuclear power... Which I'm about to do for my first time