Hi David.
I've had a thread on this topic going for a while but it hasn't received any developer attention.
As you know the Elite community is widely varied and there are many professionals here of varying fields. I can't speak for everyone but I can think of at least three professional texture artists here who would love to have a crack at producing some extra paintjobs to enrich visual variety, myself among them. These obviously would be vetted by FD and then, hopefully, sold in the store like every other paintjob. This would lessen the load on your own designers and net you some extra cash to boot.
We'd really appreciate getting some official word on whether this could even be possible or if we should stop daydreaming. We believe community generated content, moderated with care, could go a long way to benefiting the visual variety of Elite and improving immersion.
Thanks in advance for your consideration & looking forward to hearing your response. You guys are doing a great job so far and I plan to be on for the whole ride.