Doesn’t change the fact that they still come with weapons. Oh, and shields. Hint hint, it’s a dangerous galaxy.
Yeah, it does. If we're using nonsensical in-game choices to
literally reflect lore (which you didn't answer, btw, re what the lore says about new ships), then it certainly does matter that a Beluga comes fitted with two fixes small pulses... I've flown a Beluga plenty (even had to 'sneak' past security once or twice), and I don't fancy using those two pea shooters to defend myself against--- well,
anything. I'd wager one of the first things nearly all players do is get a few K creds back by selling or trading in those 'weapons'.
If all ships came with effective armaments? Then your point might stand, but that's not the case. All ships in the game are sold ostensibly at their worst, or at least with woefully ineffective combinations of modules. What does that say, if we're literally taking all of that as a reflection of the lore? You spend all that cash, and get a ship that can't jump, can't fight, can't ferry passengers, can't mine (at all), can't really trade, etc? What on earth is that supposed to say about the state of the galaxy, and what a new pilot should expect to encounter?
And which mode are you rolling with? Because my Elite universe is one that probably makes more sense... i.e. I've never been ambushed outside a station, or when approaching an Engineer landing pad. Play Solo, and you could go several hundred hours without having a single round or laser, er, beam fired at your ship.
Perhaps cruise liners being fitted with pea shooters that no one ever retains is FDev's clumsy, oblique way of trying to say Open is liable to get you ambushed? Again, it's bad design [and potentially bad lore], given nothing that comes standard will help you survive the wilds of Open.
Sure, technology is advanced in Elite’s Milky Way. Humans are still around, and prolific, which is optimistic enough.
And capable of building entire space stations in the middle of the galaxy in a matter of weeks. And developing an entire new frontier spanning, what, 100-300 light years across, 18,000Ly away from Sol?
Elite's universe would certainly include some very dystopic worlds and/or systems, sure, but it's well wide of the mark to try to assert that counts for the entire galaxy. Any casual glance through the galaxy map nixes that idea. You have entire space stations dedicated to tourism. Countless worlds have been terraformed, and many more Earths found and settled. Vonarburg Co-Operative used to be my home system, and in those days it was Communist - yet with a luxuriant interior... Suffice to say, Elite's universe can be a paradise.
One assumes the divide between rich and poor increased by magnitudes, sure, but a dystopia is much more than a gross divide between the have's and have-not's.
But war(Powerplay or countless warring factions in small systems) slavery, murder, piracy, alien attacks, and being executed for parking violations are a daily occurrence.
That last one should break your ‘Mersion more than anything.
As someone else already pointed out - and especially if we're taking gameplay alone as literal expression of lore; it isn't lethal, so that's incorrect.