Maybe put in examples of how it would work for a new starter and an established player with 20B. Good luck!
I don't think an established player with 20b credits will bat an eye when he spends 3m, 5m or 50m, or buys 10 spare prismatic shields of all sizes.
But OP does have a point.
1t of weapons cost a few thousand credits. we are talking a TON of weapons. Not just ONE.
So from an RP perspective, if I buy a ton of weapons, it is legally mine, I can do with them whatever I want. Why can't I crack the crate open and take out ONE weapon and ditch the rest?
Your average assault weapon weighs about 5-10 lbs, all the way up to the super heavy class .50 cal where one weighs 40-50lbs (or about 20-25kg) with ammo.
Let's go for the extreme case and say you bought the .50 cal and each weighs 25kg, means you got 40 weapons in the crate. Much better bargain than that piece you bought at pioneer supplies. Can't upgrade it? No worries, still cheaper until you can afford a gun that costs more than 10 sidewinders.
But in all fairness, OP is right, and this point has been raised a few times, where the price of a single weapon or suit is more than an entire spaceship.
Of course established players won't care much about the price tag, especially ones with FCs of their own, filled to the brim with fully engineered ships. Cases like these will always be present, where a new feature is introduced and established players can afford it right away, whereas new players would have to make it a goal to obtain.
At the same time, let's say we get new ships (yeah right lol).
How to price them?
In the line of old ships? Old players can buy them buy the dozen.
More expensive than the old ships? New players will just drool and post about it being too expensive.
The economy and the player base has grown old and there is plenty of wealth to go around. The game needs a money sink. Carriers are the only money sinks at this stage, and draining 25m/week of a player with billions will not make a major dent into their finances.