An interesting proposition. Confusing as it may be, my response to this is threefold (and apologies for the text-walling):
1) Actually, I can tell you that people
do use the ability to "Put [thing] into a stable orbit", because I use it, in fact quite regularly in the early exploration game. I don't know why you would think it's not worth it to go back and pick stuff up again later, especially if it's in a system that you haven't fully salvaged yet - at which point you were going to come back anyway, surely? And even if that weren't the case, whether it's worth it or not is wholly dependent on what exactly you're having to leave behind for later. If it's just a bunch of metals, then sure, I'd probably just leave them to float away into the black. But if I salvaged a Mining Station and salvaged more Transplutonics and Heavy Machinery than I could fit onboard? I'd definitely want to come back for that.
In most cases though, I consider the supplies cost well worth it. You must remember that in the salvage game, where you would be doing such a thing as dropping caches of loot for later, you're also generally picking up supplies just as quickly, if not quicker than you're using them. So the cost is somewhat offset.
2) Okay. Actually, I really like the idea of getting an intel chip of some kind saying "Hey, there's this cool stash of loot at X location!" and then selling that info off to someone willing to pay a price. It's basically exactly how Survey Data works - except there's a problem. Planets don't despawn after a time period, neither can they be picked up by the player. So it would be a little exploitative to be able to sell such data to a party and then immediately go recover it yourself. What would be the caveat to that? Would you get called a liar by the party you sold the intel to? Or have to fight them? How would that be set up?
... That being said. We've already seen how in 0.9 we'll be able to jettison cargo in order to distract hostile fleets (at least, pirates). I can imagine something like this being up a similar alley. Selling cargo pod intel to a buyer could be an interesting way to lure tasty targets out of the core systems - although if they're looking for your cargo, chances are they won't have much of their own, so as far as baiting-and-raiding goes, it doesn't sound that effective.
To extend upon this somewhat, what if a similar thing could apply to other objects you encounter in the outer worlds? As in, stuff that comes with the procgen, not items dropped by the player: derelict ships; weapon/supply caches; abandoned stations; Domain-Era probes, and so on. We already know that factions are willing to pay graciously for the investigation of these items ("Analyze [this thing in this system]" missions), but how do they find out about them in the first place? I would consider such a system highly superfluous, but it could be an interesting bit of world-building - and potentially roleplay - to have Explorers as well as Salvagers.
3) Finally (and shortest), this statement:
What you bring home depends more on what you want rather than how much you can fit.
The fact is, this is already the case. Even if you do intend to "come back for the rest later", chances are you're still going to be taking the most high-value (and immediately profitable/useful) goods first. This is especially the case if you're in a tight-budget situation. And that's fine! But it doesn't necessarily mean you aren't going to come back later. Selecting what you want to take from a stockpile of goods far larger than you could possibly carry all of is already a thing.
Overall, I think your initiative is sound, and I do like it, but I'm struggling to see this concept working well, and being easy for the player to understand, without also being either very superfluous (not at all necessary in the grand scheme of things), or overriding other gameplay mechanics by reliably being the "best choice" in such situations. It's not a bad idea by any means, it just needs some work.