I agree that it's pretty easy to make a lot of money... if you have a lot of time. I imagine there will be people that will only get the chance to play this game for a few hours a week if they're busy people. The game should be fun for those people as well, they shouldn't have to spend their first month of play grinding for credits so they can get the fun ships, weapons, and equipment.
The game needs to be fun and entertaining throughout the process, and yes the better ships and weapons should be considerably more expensive, but honestly, the grind from sidewinder to hauler to cobra is too, well, grind-y.
I think that the lack of variety in profit sources is what makes it this way at the moment. Trading, pirating, and bounty hunting are the only money makers in the game, with pirating and bounty hunting being much less profitable and reliable than trading. More and better pirates will help making trading less profitable, as well as increase the amount of targets for bounty hunters.
The eventual additions of mining and exploration should also help increase variety in profit sources, and make it less of a grind and more simply playing and enjoying the game.