The different blocks would have different textures, and some people use system blocks as Decor already. I think what he was pointing to, was the various 'effects', like the shrinking or the glowing and such.
Snk, the ideas are interesting but unneeded. At the end of the day, once you strip it all down to the core, all of these do exactly the same, with the only difference being in how they look, or how they can be countered.
Starmade has 3 types of FTL; Jump Drive, Warp Gate and Hyperdrive (unimplemented, but planned as part of the capital ship system). Warpgates are stationary, hyperdrive removes ability to move, and Jumpdrive will get an interdiction system or something someday. Each one is used differently, and has a different range.
The problem with your suggested idea, is that you can already put jumpdrives onto your ship, build an aesthetic ring, and then RP that the ring does something. Could even put the Jump modules into the ring so that you lose ability to jump if the ring gets too badly damaged. For the blackhole one, surround the computer in Nox crystal and put it in the center of the array. It's the same mechanic, just dressed up different each time.
I'm not sure if you can yet, but eventually you will be able to make a block identical to an existing one (like reactor or Jump) and apply a new set of values to it, mixed with something from another block mayhaps.
Take solar sails. I know warp gates need an enclosed space in order to work, and if it can count the number of "blocks enclosed", you can take that number, turn it into a ThrustTotalMul value, and make a "thruster" system from that. A complete mish-mash of 2 existing systems, and is quite different than what we have now.
Another idea might be to take power reactor's Grouping+Flat rate formula, add in some of Overdrive's ability to increase max speed, and mix them into a new form of Jump that requires a bit more planning. I dunno. "How it works" is more important than what it looks like.