Some folk think they are playing space Monopoly - the game is actually flying spaceships - getting money is just a sideshow to make it look a little more "real" and help suspend disbelief when doing stuff. I really would favour having the option of a start where "your rich old uncle died" - and you start with enough money to buy every ship a-rated 10 times over (heck give every one 10 of each ship - I don't care). I wouldn't particulary want to take that start - but, whatever, it wouldn't affect me at all.
They need to push the background discoverable stuff like Thargoids , INRA bases , things to discover more - someone earning "too" much money doing activity "a" - shrug - give them even more money - give everyone more money - then begger off and stop annoying us about it. No amount of in game money will make a crap pilot good, or even for that matter a poor video card - or crappy control setup better.
oh - and A "big" ship is not "END GAME CONTENT" - it's just a ... wait for it..... big ship.