I disagree to a point with one statement.
"I would not use Reno Kits on a Shrine of Knowledge."
Perhaps not as your first priority, but in my situation I would ABSOLUTELY without a doubt use them on my SoKs. I have 104 of them. 24 Progressive Era, 42 Industrial Age, 28 High Middle Ages, 10 Early Middle Ages. I will not prioritize my renovation kits for the SoKs, but if I have no MUCH greater things to use them on, I will use them on my SoKs. It may be only one benefit, but that benefit adds up once you've played a while and get a ton of the renovation kits from events, as has been my experience. I would recommend using the renovation kit for whatever will benefit you in your present or near future situation. With all boosts considered, my Early Middle Ages SoKs produce 5400 coin a day each for a total of 54k for all of them. Meanwhile, if I needed more daily coin for some reason, and I had a stash of unused renovation kits that I could use to raise them to Progressive Era - that would have increased my 54k coin/day to 18,954 each for a total of almost 190k, essentially 351% higher than I was at before. That could be a big difference maker for someone who NEEDS coin and does not have a ton of SoKs.
Moral of my blabbering on,
If you have just a few SoKs and they are several ages behind? Sure use Reno kits if you need coin gain.
If you have a ton of them like myself? There's not much need when producing just under 2m coin a day.
If they are only one age under you? Use a one up kit or nothing at all.
That's my two cents.