I think answer is very simple - no one's doing it wrong, it just might be wrong game for some people. Let me explain.
Major claim for min-maxer behavior is that there's no lot of content to start with. I don't agree that's the case, but I also don't believe it's very strong explanation why people look for min-maximizing in games. I think problem for min-maxers is that there's not much breathing space they can mock around within the game. I guess for them ED isn't a sandbox - well, it is, but isn't that reward total freedom experimenting. As some in this thread has pointed out they feel restricted in this game. There is full freedom to do whatever you like, but consequences are real nasty stuff that pulls them down.
And I think that's an issue here. When people say "open world sandbox space sim", for different players it means completely different things. For SC backer it means WoW/SWTOR like MMO just set in space (they love idea about automated landings, while regular ED player despise it being mandatory). For EVE player or Minecraft fanatic it means total control over events and stuff. However ED doesn't aim to be none of these things. It wants to be....hold on your hats....more like space captain's life simulation. Before you go "where's fun in that", that's not a point. There are people who look after such kind of escapism. Who doesn't look after being in control, just being in space, having adventure as they go around.
THAT'S biggest source of conflict I think. When people say 'use your imagination', it's not patronizing, it's suggestion. Elite for most of us has been role playing adventure. Do I want to see more tailored universe? Sure. However I believe FD is getting there with each release.
I think we're talking about two slightly different things. Min-maxing and complaints about particular careers being less profitable etc, are the symptom, not the disease. The disease is credit fixation, and the cause of THAT is a lack of stuff to do. That was my point. In a world where gameplay choices are vast, where there is involving content, where there are adventures aplenty, your bank balance is incidental. You probably always have just about enough to get where you want to get to, to buy new gear for new missions as and when you need it, which prevents it from becoming the thing you focus on at the exclusion of everything else. Sure, you might do some stuff on the side to save up for some slightly better gear, just like you might side-quest to get some decent loot in an RPG, but credits themselves are a sideline, not the main focus.
The problem with ED at the moment is precisely that it isn't a "space captain's life" simulator at all. I think most of the people who have become fixated on credits and thus are now complaining about balance issues, would love the game if it were that. Being a realistic simulation of life as a space captain requires more than just a decent flight model and good combat. It requires immersion. Real characters to interact with, real economy, real politics (not just coloured blob board games), real missions and real objectives. It requires diverse and realistic gameplay. It requires things like exploration to be more than just point and shoot gameplay (or, as the case may be, not even shoot, just point). It requires careful thought as to what sort of things a space captain might be doing every day, and how can we make them interesting? Like, for example, salvaging from space-wrecks, discovering abandoned stations, and a lot more besides. To give another example, RES sites should be realistic industrial areas with dynamic events, not just waypoints for random independent miners to drop into for no discernible reason. It is this thin veneer of "life as a space captain" simulation that leads people feeling like the only thing to do is grind for credits.
And that's the problem with imagination, as someone said elsewhere: when I drop in to a RES, I can imagine it being a much better proxy for a futuristic mining site than it actually is, and thus, my immersion is broken. That is a stumbling block that many can't get over. Maybe you're right, and that just means it isn't the game for them.
