I feel this has more to do with credits being one of the progression systems (as has been the case for past Elite games). For single players games this is not a problem, but as soon as credits can be transferred from other players, this progression mechanic doesn't work properly.
The current player progression systems are (non transferrable items):
- Assets/Credits (although after fleet carriers this is going to be problematic).
- Materials.
- Explorer, trading, combat ranks.
- Military ranks (federation, imperial).
- Faction reputations.
- Engineer reputations.
- Technology brokers.
The more progression systems they add (or expand upon) the less relevant the assets/credits progression becomes, which can open up credits for player financial transactions.
I agree, credit progression would break if player/player financial transaction is implemented, clearly something FDEV has been avoiding. But as you bring up, and I brought up in OP, there are so many things to progress that have nothing to do with credits that credits have become less relevant as "the" thing to grind, and more as a hinderance to going and doing stuff for mats, ranks, reps, engineers, tech, etc, since credit grinding doesn't really seem to overlap much with those activities.
Basically, either they can commit to leaving credit grind in the game, and prevent players from circumventing that, and instead make gameplay loops more interesting, or, accept that credits have become less relevant compared to the other methods of progression, and expand on player driven economics gameplay.
What would be really nice is if there's more overlap between the progression systems. They could make all of them a lot slower if you were making progress regularly IN all of them. I'm basically having to decide between mining all day for credits, mat hunting and meeting engineer requirements, grinding faction rep, etc. There's SOME overlap, like lately I've grinded out a decent amount of mats from combat and that can be turned in for at least some rep and credits. But the credit earning is meager compared to mining, and rep... Well, if I really wanted to progress there, I need to do those faction specific missions.