Problem: I create a nice material using distance texture, and link the distance to geometry or splines in the scene. I add the material to my library. I open the material in another scene, and get the red "error texture" all over my materials since to objects it was refering to isn't in the scene.
Solution: Add an option to set the distance from another material. In this way you can create great masks by using various Multi/sub materials, which will carry over no matter the geometry.
If this isn't possible, please keep the name of the deleted objects, instead of just having it say "<deleted>". Would make debugging a lot easier.