My reading was close to that, I don't think he intended mass to be multiplied, as he was talking about the performance cost of thrusting against the mass of the systems blocks.I believe RabitBat is trying to say that we condense blocks basically. make 1 block = 10 in mass, power usage, cost, and weight, so that ships don't HAVE to be 90% systems to be functional.
Either way it seems like it would make starting out that much harder. Each block might give you more bang for the credit, but you've got to mine 10 times as long to get the materials or credits for the next systems block.
Hmm. What if we had an "amplifier" block which was 10x the cost of a normal systems block and acted as 10 blocks of whatever system that it was attached to, including 10x the power draw? Maybe give it a compensating disadvantage that it does NOT get 10x the hit points.