I've suggest this before partially, so I'm cleaning my ideas and focusing on a different aspect.

1) Make the Crop Hoppers aesthetically looks like a Composter.
2) Officially change the name to a Cropper. As it's really not doing any of the old Hopper functionality.
3) Take advantage of the visible states of a Composter to give information to player. Such information should be updated at long intervals to avoid lag. Maybe it can be done on each tax report.

This would make it easier for the player to know if they need to expand their farm.

For example, each of the Composter States would need at least the following items/sec:
8 = 3.000 (bone meal level, at exactly max)
7 = 2.625
6 = 2.250
5 = 1.875
4 = 1.500
3 = 1.125
2 = 0.750
1 = 0.375
0 = 0.000 (empty)

The following formula would give the result, without needing a table:
cropperState = FLOOR( currentRate /cropperLevel * 8 )

Where:
cropperState = the visible state of the Composter (0-8)
currentRate = the selling rate in items/sec of the Cropper (0.000-3.000)
cropperLevel = the tier level of the Cropper the player has purchased. (1, 2, or 3)

eg: A Cropper selling at 1.124 would should show stage 2.

 

I feel like this would cause additional lag but it sounds fun anyway. Support.

 

I don't particularly care for bullet point 3 because of lag concerns, even though you address it. If it doesn't cause lag then yes, but I'm mainly adding support to replace the hopper part of the crophopper. Since the crophopper doesn't need to function as a hopper anymore, it being placed is just more lag on top of the insane lag we're already experiencing. I think a composter makes the most since. (Also, place composters on your crophoppers to reduce lag, y'all.)

 

I think to implement my idea it just needs to hold 1 extra variable per cropper, don't know if it exists already. Total items sold.

The time between taxes is already set at a fixed interval. So that's just a simple division. (Even if "per second" is more of a minecraft second and not a real world second)

The rest should be able to calculate on the fly, during the tax report, and should be simple math. See formula above.

 

Any unobtainable block would be a good candidate for the "Skin"

Examples:

• The various colors of Command Blocks. (I think the Purple, makes the most sense)
  
• End Portal Frame (we don't have access to the end so this block wouldn't exist otherwise)
• Jigsaw Blocks
• Structure Blocks
• Budding Amethyst

This would be just the skin and no current function of said block should be inherited. If anything, default behavior before adding the modded stuff, should be that of Cobblestone.

Currently, The Croppers are still Inheriting functionality from regular Hoppers. They are pulling in items, and have the 5 slot inventory. While it may not sum to a lot, it's unneeded memory and processing that does not fit the current use of the item. And I guess every little bit where we can save can help TPS.