Venturing to the far reaches of the map doesn’t help, either (one variant would have been that leaving the base behind and roaming the lands would have the game unload it from memory, and upon reloading it some rearranging might have taken place so that more pieces may be added, but that’s not the case).
The next test is going to be to construct a secondary base somewhere else on the map (best far away from the main base) to see what’s happening as a consequence.