I think the premise of these rules is a justifiable design decision that on balance probably makes sense. We'd have to be able to see the big picture to debate it with any authority, of course.
What is not justifiable, at all, is the failure to communicate or signpost any of this information. Whether in-game (but ok let's handwave that because "beta"), or even in a text document here on the forums or anywhere else, we have nothing. All we've gotten from Frontier is the occasional social media post telling a person in distress that yes, their system building plan isn't viable (surprise!) and this is exactly how the devs want it. Even these driveby bits of clarification come only after people have put significant time and effort into dead-end projects; after the whole community has come together to try and troubleshoot something which should in any sane world be absolutely crystal clear from the start.
It's been like this every step of the way so far, and it's so disappointing to see. On the one hand, Frontier are unveiling this ambitious and logistically rich update to the game, something many of us never would have dared dream they might create; and at the same time their apathy towards communications shows a contemptuous disregard for their players' time, emotional investment, and goodwill.
Seriously. Obviously the devs KNOW how their game works. When they deign to answer questions about it, those answers become major milestones in what is at present a frankly excruciating community investigation into foundational play mechanism which it would be really, really, really easy to type out into a bullet pointed list and post somewhere.
The fact that this hasn't happened, and consistently doesn't happen, is baffling to me only because I continue to want to extend the benefit of the doubt towards the devs' motivations. When something so small as describing how your game is supposed to work is just not worth the time; it speaks volumes about your attitude towards the people that play your game, and what you think their experiences are worth.
I still like the game. I'm still excited to see what else the devs do with it. But this kind of stuff feels icky in a way that is really difficult to shrug off. I wish I could square that circle.
