Honestly, I think that current end game challenges (350+ K bounties, Ordoses, Expeditions) are perfectly balanced at default battle size. Kinda thinking that Starship Legends mod should be integrated into vanilla since announced story point upgrade system kinda bland compared to rich flavoured mod's. Also effect of the most guns need to be reworked into more "hail-of-bullets" mood. Right now, Storm Needler feels pathetic, HAG's fire barely noticable and so on. Trailer Moments mod is the another must have but it doesnt fix all the guns and doesnt affect sounds.
So the morale is: "dont treat SS as some 4X game". Its all about messy space battles, shady business and surfing. With latter is yet to be implemented.