NPC crew are fairly expensive. The one thing that would be useful that, as far as I know, only player crew give is extra pips. Why not let NPC crew also provide extra pips. It would make sense. I'm paying them for something. And it doesn't need to cut into the multiplayer role. Just have it so you can have guest on board while the crew is and let them crew for you. I would crew everything in the game up for those pips. It would also make bigger ships more valuable. Why is this not in game. Right now we are paying crew for basically nothing.