Starsector is still in alpha... It is by no means a complete game
No one disputes that. Considering how well written its foundation is and how easy(relative) it is to mod even the bigger aspects of it, i have high hopes for it. To clarify the sentiment of my last comment, for the time being as there is not much use in complaining about stuff that ain't there yet and if those ppl who complain don't want to actually invest their time in realizing those changes(which is purely optional and even has its own pitfalls) they want to see themselves adopted, they can look up another thing that already established some if not all of those things they want to see and experience.
Also regarding x3,TC release 2008 (ive still got the dvd albeit its pretty much eaten up by fungus), AP came out early 2012 and it was all still a mess which didn't get much better until a solid LU universe version mid 2016 came out and now by 2019 thanks to jourabes continuous efforts it has become a totally different beast of burden.