The Problem

The devs were on the right track making construction capacity-based built around buildings the player has to build. This creates two major problems: every economy becomes a command economy and 80% of your time spent in Victoria 3 is playing a game of whack-a-mole with supply shortages.

My Proposal

I propose they make construction an industry like any other. It takes an input of resources like wood, explosives, iron/steel, glass, and tools to output a resource called "construction capacity" (or "construction contracts", it doesn't really matter). Once produced, the state buys a proportion of the total produced depending on the economy laws. Think of it like the consumer goods percentage from HOI4. Once the government has its share, the rest goes to the market to be purchased by buildings. When a building reaches full cash reserves, it will buy construction capacity, which grants it a spot on a private construction queue. Every building will buy all the construction capacity they need upfront so fluxuations in price or suddenly deleting construction industry doesn't cause any problems.

The hope is this will let the economy run on auto-pilot, continuously building up industries that perform well and removing the whack-a-mole gameplay that dominates economy management. It serves to expend the cash that gets soaked up into cash reserves while giving flavor to the various economy laws. It also creates the situation where a failing economy sees its construction industry wither away while a booming economy sees it expand rather than the current situation where players just pay to keep the industries open 24/7.

Making Laissez-faire Fun

One of the biggest criticisms of laissez-faire in Victoria 2 was that it locked players completely out of economy management. It also lead to situations where capitalists would build factories in places that didn't take advantage of RGOs. By allowing players to have a small amount of construction capacity, they can still interact with the economy, but only on a small scale, forcing players to be strategic with their capacity. If buildings can only expand when at full cash reserves, you avoid the situation where capitalists construct new buildings in nonsensical places and don't take advantage of economies of scale.