You're missing the point. You kinda contradict youreself: The way you argue, I have to ask you why there are different ships in the game at all rather than only a single ship. Since you can do everything with that ship, no other ships are needed.
When you created your commander, did you accept the default avatar you got without changing it to your liking or not? In either case, why did you? It doesn't matter what your avatar looks like, and it's enough when there is a single avatar because you can everything with the default avatar. It would enough if it looked like a blob just to represent someone sitting in the cockpit so it doesn't look empty. I guess some people like it when they can make their avatar look to their liking and it's fun for them. The way you argue, everyone should have to follow a "progression ladder" so that they get more and more options to make their avatar look to their liking the further they have followed the "progression ladder".
But guess what, I don't care about what you seem to call a "progression ladder" when it means that there is no reasonable way of making progress. I have done that in two of the predecessors of ED and in other games, and I'm done with pointless struggle. I don't even consider making money in ED as progress but as something that gets in the way of what I want to do. At the same time, I enjoy making lots of money, and it doesn't matter if I need more money or not. The game isn't about money at all. It's about doing things that you want to do and having fun doing them. One of the things I want to do is trying out the different ships. And it's more fun for me to fly a T9 instead of a Sidewinder, and generally it's more fun for me to fly medium and large ships than small ones. Some people like the colour green, others like blue. That's just the way it is, and it's totally pointless to argue with a "progression ladder" that would have me struggle to make money for months and years before I can do what I want. I simply won't do it when it's that pointless.
You don't even need to understand this. You can simply accept it. Nobody prevents you from deciding how you want your "progression ladder" to be like. You can do everthing you want in your Sindewinder forever if you prefer that.
Well, I don't think and don't feel like I'm a ship or represented by a ship. I'm still a pilot, and I can even see myself sitting in the pilot seat while using a ship. Technically, it doesn't make a difference, and technically, it's all no more than pixels in different colours on a screen.
Different ships fly and handle differently and are better suited for some tasks and not for others. I could use a Mamba for trading and a T9 for combat. I could do mining in a Sidewinder. Somehow, I like the T9 better for trading, the Mamba for combat and almost never use a Sidewinder. That doesn't mean I dislike the Sidewinder, it's because I like other ships better. The only ship I dislike so far is the Diamondback Explorer (or Scout?). I feel awfully cramped in it and the thrusters have an awful sound that's blasting my ears.
I don't think I should be given everything in ED without effort; I never said that. I'm perfectly fine with having something to do to get something when the time and effort is reasonable. For example, despite there are a lot of things wrong with how this is made, I enjoyed getting a Guardian FSD. It requires a reasonable amount of time and effort, involves doing fun things and some exploring and kinda uncovering a mystery. If I had to struggle for months or years to get one, I wouldn't have done it.
I have also played Asassins Creed (and am still playing it as there are several parts), and there are tremendous differences between ED and Asassins Creed. ED doesn't give the player the information required to sucessfully play the game. Asassins Creed does that. There were only two things in Asassins Creed Origins I had to look up; they were the sun clock puzzle and how to defeat the boss that can be found in the desert and the name of which I don't remember. ED forces me to to look up things online more or at least as much as I can play it; even common things like trade or gathering materials require research using external tools. Without that, ED is basically unplayable.
Another difference is that in AC you have quests you can follow, and they help you in learning how to sucessfully play and guide your progress. ED doesn't have that at all and at the same time, it has much more to learn. (Maybe the Guardian Data research missions could count, and you'll never know about them because there is only one place or so where you get some information. You have to somehow know that they exist and research them from and with external sources.)
In AC, you have a lot of fun just playing (at least I did/have). There is a lot of variety because there are so many different places, and you have to figure out how you want to go about them, which you can do in different ways. Progressing is a side effect of fun gameplay, and it's steady and very reasonable. It's just a great game. In ED, you don't have a lot of fun because you have to struggle for money so you can play the game. There is bascially no variety because the different places are all the same. How you go about trading, combat, exploration and mining is always the same --- do it in a different way and you will fail. Progressing is irrelevant because it means struggling for money with no perspective of getting enough, and having to struggle for money takes the rest of fun you may otherwise have out of it. In ED you never know how to do something and can't figure it out because trying things is forbiddingly expensive, and the lack of information and the missing learning make it more frustrating than anything else.
Asassins Creed is different from ED and has entirely different gameplay, and the "progression ladder" is there in AC and it works fine while it's not there in ED and it doesn't work. In ED, you can consider engineering your ships, getting Guardian modules, the ranks required to get certain ships and getting permits the equivalent of a "progression ladder". Engineering is an awful grind (if you look at the questions threads they made, even the community manager don't like the grind) and Guardian modules is also an awful grind. Both require money so that you can afford doing these things. I don't know about ranks for ships and permits because I don't have any. None of these progressions is a side effect from fun gameplay you would do anyway, so that doesn't compare.
Sorry, ED is a game that sucks badly while Assassins Creed Origins is a great game. ED could be as great or greater and I really wish it would get there; the framework for that is already mostly there.
Exactly! So why shouldn't I get the ships I like quickly so that I can play with them? It still takes time to learn how to use them and what they can do and to equip and to engineer them.
I keep repeating myself, so I don't wonder when I don't reply anymore.
completed it anyway using mission targets, they were relatively easy but all the ships pounced as soon as I dropped in, which did get interesting a couple of times due to a smashed canopy.