i thought i'm crazy when i couldn't build them from one day to another! same for the rest of the tool block and the timer block group :( i didnt see a note anywhere

maybe you find the frames in cargo/storage?

Splitsie mentioned in his recent Scrapyard corrosion test stream that they switched to using the construction frames requirement to prevent blocks from being built. Rather than trying to edit the 'G' menu as Space Engineers updates add new blocks.

My understanding is they are doing something that adds the construction frame requirements to all blocks, then removes it from blocks that we can build in Scrapyard. That way any new blocks will not be buildable unless they are whitelisted.

I started playing this not too long after he did his series and I don't remember drills ever being buildable. You had to find them. The Scrapyard part is less useful once you get to space, but you will need to come back to the planet to find small grid drills for that asteroid base.

Splitsie also said in a stream he would like to figure out away to extend the Scrapyard play style to space "at some point" if practical.

I think Keen having upgraded the space encounters in the Apex Survival update gives a glimpse of how Space Scrapyard could be. With less block grinding and more harvesting.

Plenty of Sci-Fi books have scenarios where large spaceship battles have occurred in a system and there are dead ships and parts of ships floating around. Sounds very Scrapyard to me.