Great an old 80s game. Just what we needed.
What i wanted and bought the game for was an updated version of FFE with the possilbility of coop play.
I got that, in spades. Which is why I love ED, warts and all.
But its all getting a bit off topic.
On-topic - yes, this all seems a bit silly.
What FD could have done is that each site gives something different, and you need all of those things to unlock the various modules. So there would be no repeating the same site. Also 18 seems excessive, let's say half a dozen different guardian doo-dahs, fly to 6 separate sites, do the quest thingy, then you are done. Return to the bubble, unlock.