Thanks for clearing up the mechanics a bit Alex. It must just seem more severe than it actually is--the edge of a cliff rather than a gradual linear or exponential curve. My experiences with accidents thus far have left me with mixed feelings. When starting a new game in a small frigate, one or two pieces of valuable loot can put you over into "unforgivably overloaded" territory where I'm accident prone every few paces, often before I can reach a station. The punishment is so severe when said accident occurs, I end up reloading the save.
This break in gameplay is the root of my frustration. If accidents were moddable, I'd make it so they occurred more gradually as the fleet becomes overloaded, frigates and smaller fleets would be more forgiving and punishments never so severe that I'd want to stop my play and return to a previous save. I can live with losing a small weapon, a few crew and some supplies, but it seems to go right for my golden loot every time.
I like having to be conscious of my inventory, but I hold my opinion that it's intrusive in its current form.
*edit*- My favorite approach to being overloaded is Fallout 3's take on it, where your character becomes severely impeded (speed wise), making you easy prey for slow and large enemies. It's possible to hobble back to safety long distances with a bunch of loot in your inventory, but it's so painfully slow that it's often only done with the most precious of loot. The game also has dropped item persistence, so you can take multiple trips to haul large inventories of goodies back to base.