I had some sacrifices to technological advancement also. Then I figured out the power is transmitted through floors from below, so when I though I was cutting the power, I wasn't because my water wheel linkages were below the gear corners. I play it safe now and am meticulous about putting a complete cutoff gear and lever away from the machines and the power generation. I lose a bit of power along the way to keep good separation, but it saves gnome lives.
I also dump (using a quantum stockpile type setup except dumping into a hole that drops onto the input) from above now, and keep the machines isolated by locked doors when I am running them. I open the doors after shutting them down to let the haulers in. It's encouraged me to start looking into stupid gnome minecart tricks to automate things even more, purely for safety.
Lost some flying pets too. Roof over the machine room!
My main complaint is WAY too many resources. Okay, I may have been a bit extreme on waterwheels... but I only ran the block making machine for about 60 seconds. 15000 blocks and every time I hit that entry in stocks I lag as long as the machine ran.
I think the efficiency may need a little downward balancing.
Way too many kids too. Gnomes aren't kobolds. They are long-lived. Kids should be rare. Gnomes should make up with pets and machines what they lack in gnome power.