FWIW it has been tweaked a bit in beta, where they ask for specific cargo if you have it, and say how much plus give you a timer.
This, plus it might have been fixed in regards to materials. I have a bunch of this and that in materials and data, but only carry cargo now and then, and I know I've gotten messages about cargo that corresponds to if I had something for a mission or was empty. So maybe they're ignoring the materials now.