A smaller market means lots of players are trying to be selfsufficient instead of relying on the market. This of course makes the market even smaller thus it is a self-enhancing problem.

Solution: Really ram one up there on the tech starters who have too long tech phases.

How to do it: Set a "safe tech" of lets say 30 total tech points per acre. Then the rest of the tech is subjected to destruction based on labs destroyed. For example if you lose X% of your acreage in labs you lose X*.5% of your tech surpassing 30 tech points per acre. Lets drop that to X*0.3% of your tech if the destruction was caused by someone else or by earthquakes.

There you go, now tech starts will have to be short and people will rely on the market more than before to get those precious techs.