I just did a bit of testing, since it seemed like that could be a solution to one of my problems. I found that ProductionPoints affects Manufacturing AND Research (and Income).

Basically - Production is different to Manufacturing and Research. It's literally the production that the colony can output (which then gets split amongst manu/res/eco )

I have a solution that works for research rate, but I wasn't sure what to do about manufacturing.

What I've done is instead of modifying PacingDefs, which I couldn't get to change total research, I made a bunch of Ship components that can affect total Research. When you start the game, you can go into a shipyard and make a ship with a customizable research modifier. If you find you're researching things too fast, you can just make another ship with more modules. Or too slow, boosting modules. It allows for some rather nice flexibility (if I do say so myself) without having to change pacing and start a new game.

I'll try it with various manufacting things again, though I doubt it'll work.

I'll be releasing that mod when Beta 6 comes out.

Hmm, you could modify ColonyNetIncome to offset that, but that would affect Tourism too, which isn't affected by ProductionPoints...

Or maybe just adjust all maintenance in pacing. Trouble is that trades are valued at certain incomes, and you wouldn't want to make it so much harder (or would you, that's a thought)