Hey! First off, just want to say that if you're not a fan of CR etc, that's absolutely your prerogative.
That said, if the issue is that you're not able to get off the ground, I think it's more a question of figuring out how to go about doing stuff and/or perhaps playing on the easy difficulty, which makes combat easier and nets you more supplies. Also, with this update, the game is much easier to get going in than it was with 0.7x, what with the sort-of-free stuff you get from salvaging, and the rewards of related missions.
As far as what to do: broadly speaking, you want to either bounty-hunt - first system bounties, then named (and do some salvaging as opportunities present themselves), or focus on salvaging, jump-starting that by taking some "analyze derelict" missions and probably using your initial money to get a Dram and some extra fuel.
If you're still having trouble keeping afloat doing that, it depends a lot on the details; this probably isn't the thread to hash it out, but if you had the inclination to and posted in general, I'm sure someone would help you out. Finally, if you just want to make stuff a lot easier on the financial side, I'd suggest lowering the price of fuel and supplies in data/campaign/commodities.csv.