Note on the poll:
Plants: I use all kinds of plants, often around 20 types of plants, including the "more plant types" plants, just to give me a better variety of ale and more exquisite flours. I really like the diversity in plants!
Metals: I tend to use every metal I find. Copper always gets used for ammunition, unless I'm done with dozens of armor sets and can spare higher value materiels for ammo. If I find cassiterite, bronze will get used for ammo instead of copper.
Armor/Weapons uses the better materiels from the beginning. I don't bother with copper armor, but will start with steel right away. Or, in rare circumstances, I'll go for even better metals, if available and easy to mass produce. I don't consider iron to be a metal fit for warfare on itself, as it can so easily be made into steel. It's wasteful to use iron as iron!
I'm also fond of having brass (thanks for adding it to the blast furnace!), electrum and all kind of nice alloys for trade goods and furniture (although furniture oftentimes pure gold, just because. Gold. Dwarf. Good.).
Long story short: I love the diversity. It's nice to save some FPS by standardizing so much, like leather and bone and so forth, but oftentimes I just want the flavor when it comes to my industries. A dwarf needs to be well fed first and foremost, dwelling in luxury quarters next, and lastly defending himself with advanced weaponry, keeping the military small and elite, while having a glorious industry.
I'm fond of drink and industry. War only serves to protect the industry and has a secondary role (in most forts). Now having poisons and all other kinds of good stuff available, I feel I will need even less military, and can probable reduce it to legion dwarves for melee and fishers for ranged (expect that one legendary fish cleaner, who has his pond and nets!).
Sidenote: Trading food and ale is less rewarding in masterwork, but still works well early on. Once you start having a few encrusted gold crafts, you're set and fed. Still would wish my best brews and meals to be worth a bit more.
Edit:
A suggestion for the manual: In the Weapon & Armor page, add a link to a table with the poisons, what they're made from and what their effects are. Seems sensible to have that link here, and might also motivate people to actually use them