I care more about combat than commerce.
Glad I'm not the only one. Game does seems to have functions to spy/check profitable markets for particular items (
could be Nexerlin stuff that enhances it or something, IDK) but even then I'm having a very hard time thinking of any profits, trader profession has never clicked for me because for me space is about exploration and adventure, isolation and discovery, life and death separated by the safety of one's starship's hull and inner pressurized places. To me space is an event of grand spectacle worthy of many space odysseys into the deeper depths of the Universe.
So yeah.. where was I. Ah, of course, as far as inventory management in SS goes I play it like in older RPG games because years of playing those kinds of games has made it easier for me to manually manage items to a point I'm surprised if a game has an easier way to sort stuff as by the time I find that out I've already invested some good amount of hours into a said game.
Back to SS again my current on-going playthrough was supposed to originally be a more trader-like Melnorme-esque thing but instead I've ended up playing as a raiding and hoarding beast who sometimes sells a lot of loot to those I trust to a worthy place to give them much higher survivability rate, so I guess I haven't steered away too much from the Melnorme and/or Bentusi trader element. Good grief, my posts get so long so fast.