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Explosive blast is looking a little long in the teeth these days. Ignoring SR is great, and acid is still less widely resisted than fire. That said, explosive blast does still have some edges over acid puddle:
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Another thing to consider when choosing between the two: Explosive Blast also works for that classic bit where "high initiative Spellcaster softens up foes, then slower init melee characters rush in to mop 'em up." Your melee-centric soldier, solarian, etc., probably isn't going to be a fan of you soaking their charging lane in acid.
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I haven't analyzed the alien archive, but I have running a few campaigns at this point. There have been very few enemies with spell resistance, and those that did tended to have low SR, so that's not as big of a factor in SF in my experience.
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If you have resist acid 5 and resist fire 5, the acid resistance applies twice to Acid Puddle vs once to Explosive Blast.
Gate doesn't seem to provide a good explanation for why, other than secrecy and jealousy of those how know it, this hasn't replaced starship travel for intraplanetary travel of people. 2 million credits isn't much of an investment compared to something like a Mk4 Tiara of Translocation or what one would presume a starship costs in credits. Surprised there's no benevolent or capitalistic organization (but I repeat myself) spamming these everywhere to link all the planets and charge (or not) a reasonable fee for walking through.
This might become more relevant in Drift Crisis. And also gives us an explanation as to how Elf Gates were made.
Definitely not something for players to utilize, the extreme costs alone seem to put it purely in either the NPC realm territory (or utilizing BP using some of the BP rules floating around). For comparison, the price is the entire wealth gain of one character between levels 19 to 20.
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Revisiting these spells, new/updated thoughts:
Adamantine Shot is probably too powerful compared to other damaging spells. 3d8 at 1st level vs 2d8 for Overheat, with better range and the possibility of making breaching attacks on three doors/items instead. At level 6 it's doing 27d8 if everything hits, which is the same as a disintegrate that you fail. Three attacks vs one attack and one save, but c'mon. SFS killing this is understandable.
Antimagic Burst I'd overlooked, but it's a big big big upgrade on Greater Dispel Magic. Hits all spells in the area, not just multiple spells on one guy, but even better, can stop supernatural or other magical related effects. But wait, that's not all! All creatures in the area must save, and their magic items and spellcasting abilities(!!!) don't work for 1d4 rounds if they fail. Sorry, devastator cache technomancer, you should have invested in longarms proficiency after all.
Calm the Storm is worse than the bad I thought, it gives +2 morale bonus to mind affecting saves only, plus a reroll if you fail, compare to +2 morale to all saves, including all supernatural powers on Mystical Aegis, which also gives evasion against magical damage and temp HP against magic damage. Witchwarpers and Precogs have better emergency reroll abilities than this, and Mystics have the least to worry about mind affecting things in the game, so no thanks.
Empathic Support is still good, but a Technomancer with a permanent weak summon from the Holographic Artist's cache may want to use it on his sidekick and have it hand out auto rerolls every round until it gets killed. By far the most resource efficient way to get multiple rerolls on attack/defense/skill use without tying up a PC whose actions are more useful.
Forcecage can be used defensively, something I didn't see the first time. Drop the barred version around your party, you are all immune to melee approaches and have improved cover against those outside, they don't get cover from you.
Furious Shriek - Fortitude save that damages objects with a big area. I don't know if you need to smash up a bunch of objects or bad fortitude undead surrounding you, but if so, the damage on this is pretty good for the area of effect. Just don't be adjacent to someone and eat an AOO.
Ice Prison - It's not actually quite like Hold Monster, because this one tanks your reflex save (you're paralyzed with a -5 dex modifier) that you use to escape. Much harder to get away. Why is this ranged but doesn't provoke? Probably meant to be a touch attack.
Mystical Aegis - I missed that this also protects you against residual effects (like one round of shaken/sickened) that some spells have on a successful save, and that the mass version is for some reason at level 5, so you'll train out of the level 4 individual version very soon. Crazy good.
Star Wall - Still really good, drop it as an inward facing ring on a group you've tied down Etheric Shards and/or some other crowd control so they have to sit and take the plasma and high radiation damage every round. 10' radius if you want everyone inside to take maximum effects, but that can be enough if you have them fixed in place. WWs benefit most, usually.
Subzero Clutch is just mandatory on a full BAB precog. Too easy to get the pin (stack bonuses and use a high paradox on the first grapple check) and then (if you're strength or power armor for the subsequent unassisted checks) hold on. Gross.
One other thought: thank god for Calm the Storm, Mystical Aegis, and Spiritual Bonds - we finally have some main line things that the 15th level Overlord Mystic connection power (free dispel attempt on spell effects that protect against mental domination spells) can actually work against. Still fringe, but no longer almost entirely useless.
I guess Mind of Three and Intellect Fortress, maybe?, qualified before, but you weren't likely to find AP spells on an enemy.