Hmm. So I get what you're saying, but does this really hold up?
An experienced player isn't going to wait around for the stipend to tick while doing analyze missions - not because it isn't fun, but because they can ramp up way, way, way faster by using those analyze missions as starting points for salvage expeditions. Or by doing something else (bounty hunting etc) to get going.
So, yeah, technically it's reward with no risk, but it really just acts as a mitigator for the calculated risks you can take while it's ticking. This covers "analyze" missions, too; grinding them is slower than the alternative, even if you factor in the risks not paying off sometimes.
For a less experienced player, they're not going to have "how to get to endgame in an easy, slow, and boring way" mapped out (due to being inexperienced), so again, this stuff ought to act as a mitigator, analyze missions will naturally lead them into salvaging ("hey, what's that other sensor contact nearby?"), and so on.
I feel like "all reward and no risk" is indeed dangerous, but primarily if it's not passive. Then the player may feel forced to do it instead of doing more interesting, higher risk/reward activities. When it's passive - and comparatively minor, to boot - it's just a backdrop to other stuff they'll be doing.
With the Wayfarer/Shepherd start, you can easily make a quick 100K from a couple of exploration missions with very little risk. That lets you build a small exploration fleet (a Dram, 2-3 more frigates, a weaponless SO Mule or two) that can pretty much escape anything and can do strings of scanning/survey missions that are in roughly the same direction on the map. You have the firepower to kill early automated defenses (even with your own ship on autopilot), you can usually escape from pirates etc without losses, and you soon have the cargo capacity to haul whatever worthwhile salvage you come across. By the end of the first cycle I had 500K doing this just now, no reloads, no very valuable finds, no selling on the black market, even.
It's likely that a good player will be able to make more from combat bounties etc, but with exploration having this kind of payoff hunting pirate frigates in Corvus for 1500 a pop or even doing named bounties for 50K at the start doesn't really make sense for an average player. You're even doing things you want to do anyway: finding good colony sites, finding blueprints, nanoforges etc, which keeps it from being too boring.
These types of exploration fleets feel like they should be a viable playstyle, but the rewards seem really high. In particular, they're really high at the start compared to everything else; you'll quickly hit the max level of income you can get from exploration (roughly 1 million a cycle, maybe, without being laser-focused) and stay there for as long as you want.
