This whole income measuring thing is some kind of misguided attempt to force a 'fairness doctrine' that doesn't exist in E: D. I can see FD being interested in boosting some missions, or increasing bounties, but to insist that there should be any kind of artificial income parity placed so each of the roles is not in the spirit of Elite.
the "spirit of Elite" as you call it is based on a single player game, which this is most certainly not.
One presumes that the game was designed with some idea of longevity in mind. Now consider the small number of systems with stations and outposts compared to the galaxy as a whole. Most players will be crammed into this small area for trading as more and more join. It's fine for the moment but later, when you have 10 or 15 people all trading the same commodities as you, the market will die. No good moving to another system with better prices, there are 10 or 15 people trading the best wares in them too. With no other profession to take the place of trading to make cash everyone and their dog is going to be trading. As a result, profits from trading will fall dramatically and the game is going to get very old very fast. Comes to that, it's already is starting to get old.
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