Might I suggest an alternative possibility; that not all labs are created equally? Most ‘labs’ may be simply a building or two of simple genetics, robotics, or material RnD equipment (perhaps even civilian/low level corporate holdings) with little more security than a few zeds or police drones.
While on the other end of the scale would be the grand facilities worthy more of that Resident Evil/Vault-tech treatment. Black Sites concealing terrible secrets perhaps leading into Primordial Temples, Experimental AI mainframes, Resonance Cascade Research, Unethical Human Research, Alien Containment, High Energy Physics ect.
This wouldn’t ‘technically’ decrease the number of labs or possible science resources, but would decrease the probable yeild of fantastic finds and the ‘top secret’ facility density to something much more more plausible to a lower average.
If I may give a practical example, living in a university town I am constantly running into laboratories and research facilities where I least expect them, however, most of these are something fairly innocuous like ‘poultry disease research’, or ‘corn hybridization’, ‘hydrocarbon design’, ‘mouse development modeling’.
Places that could feasibly provide more useful tools and materials than someones basement drug den or a highschool chemistry room, but nothing booked under govt black projects. The best thing would be that in many of these cases you simply wouldn’t know til you drove down there to see, or even broke in to explore… Maybe it REALLY IS just a room full electronics, chemicals and mutant rats, but maybe that’s just a cover to hide the suspiciously large parking garage with a somehow still functional ‘soda machine’ hiding the multifloor elevator and robot death maze.
