Well, the information does exist in-game, insofar as the objects are in-game to be found.
Presumably, the dev's envisaged people getting engineer invites and then, eventually, stumbling across the location where the relevant item was to be found and then thinking "Ah! Now I've found these things I can go and unlock that engineer!"
Not saying I approve of it but it seems like that's the only explanation for the way things happen within the game.
There's a bit of an art to introducing "tutorials" into a game without making it obvious that they are tutorials and it's something FDev isn't terribly good at.
Now we have chained-missions in the game, it wouldn't hurt if there were a whole heap of missions which trigger a "tutorial" as a set of chained-missions which educates the player about how to do something.
For example, you find a mission that requires you buy Lavian Brandy and deliver it to a station.
As soon as you complete a mission like that for the first time you get a chained-mission to go and buy other Rares and deliver them as well.
Work through the entire chain of missions and the location of every Rare would be known to you.
That way it'd still be "murky" but once you stumbled across the right sort of activity, the game would guide you through the activity via chained-missions.
Im not gonna try and second guess what FD originally thought would happen, Im not even remotely qualified...I just say what I see ingame, and only ingame. I am aware of how limited I am by not using the many resources on this and other forums and seemingly standing by a principle that if its not in the game, its not worth knowing...thats not how I personally play games.
In fact I would tip me hat in respect at the efforts of many who have created such guides and tutorials, but the point then is that yer simply emulating someone elses experiences...yer no longer playing yer own game, yer playing someene elses game...maybe its me just being silly and there are some very decent souls here who take the time to explain in more detail away from the forums which can be heated at times...saracsm doesnt communicate well at times, fun though it is to use.
My point was really that its not easy to find out a lotta even basic things in the game without either a helluva lotta trial and error, or a helluva lotta time already played and an overuse of either a notepad or bookmarks...sorta a mixture of all the above fer me personally. One can only hope frontier are fast learners as it can be frustrating in coming here to ask basic questions that shouldnt need to be asked outside a game in the first place.
A point which is somewhat different than that of the OP...and yet not so much different at all. Unlocking them...is a pita. I have grown rather fond of them, but unlocking them...it really is just more frustrating than anything...different reasons same summary.
That being said, I come from the old skool where one had to train an account fer 9 months real time just to be able to fly a ship, and another 6 to be any good at it...grind alone isnt my issue here. Perversely, if Im in the right frame of mind, I enjoy it which means Im in a small minority of players...the ones who eventually unlock everything simply because its there. But theres a fine line between a steep learning curve, and a curve that bounces ye out of a game to find the answers ^
