Not sure it really matters how we made our money. I play in a sort of stop-and-go fashion, tend to burn out a bit on the betas and go on big exploration trips between them. Have never had more than about 200 million in assets, but had plenty of fun in the process.
Mostly I worry about the consistency of the universe we are playing in. There are two ways to make that inconsistent:
One is to use a phasing mechanism to separate player characters at different points in story lines in the same spot. World of Warcraft has that perfected to the point that consistency is never to be expected there. It is all about the individual, the actual multiplayer parts are generally instanced out.
The other way is to make the player characters inconsistent, by allowing different play modes to overlap in the same game world. That's what ED is doing, and I personally also do not like that. But I can live with it as long as it is not too exploitable. Changing from Open to Solo to avoid getting ganked seems fair enough - that actually ensures that conflicting play styles don't get to conflict. Changing instance to get landing permit at a busy station is questionable, but harmless. Changing instances to maximise profit is just jarring.
Do I stack missions? Yes, if they are available in Open (where I play) since if a Boom economy wants me to take 5 data packages to the same spot, or two groups want to kill the same bunch of skimmers, who am I to question them? Do I change modes for that? No. That's just gaming the game too much in my opinion.
EDIT: A way to test consistency, can be to role-play through it:
Player: "Do you have any missions for me?"
Mission Giver: "Yes, I have a massacre mission?"
Player: "Only one? I need at least 10 to make it worth my time."
Mission Giver: " Sorry, but if you change to an alternate reality there might be more. If you end up here again, I am happy to pay them all out, even if most of them are from other universes."
Player: "Right on, thanks heaps!" <vanishes>
Sorry, that just can't work, in my opinion...
EDIT 2: Can we hand missions stacked from mode hopping in at the same mission giver? Never tried.
S