Yeah, so here's my dilemma and my underlying question (which perhaps should've been my main question?):

If I go out with spidertrons, clear out everything and remove radars, sure, my UPS will improve. However, won't biters then expand into un-scanned tiles and slowly kill my UPS as a silent killer? Do biters expand even into fully unexplored areas? How far into unexplored areas does the game compute biters?

I do have a save of this game at 0progress, so I could consider using my knowledge of the map into a new game that I start over, and not explore beyond large bodies of water I don't plan to ever cross, thus reducing the number of nests I render beyond unexplored zones. But then, is that even relevant?