Don't worry, Malichai, you're not being rude.
To answer your question, you should really read this thread. It has TONS of great information regarding reverse engineering.
The short answer is mods, and armoring afaik, both follow the linear RE path. This means they have no offshoots and when you RE to get new recipes all you will get is a recipe with better stats.
The earpieces, however, do branch off when RE, so you can get defense stats on those.
I'm a 400 Cybertech myself, and I really hope they address this. The tanks in my guild, and myself, are very disappointed I can't make them tanking mods.