I'm enjoying the mod but I do have some things about it that 'feel' like they're not as intended...
Thank you very much for the detailed feedback, I'll go through them one by one below.
The home system has everything on the one and only world, the pathers are triggered from the start. I don't have a problem with it, just mentioning it as feeling odd when compared to the other faction starts (I've not tried them all, It may be more common than I think).
Was more common than I thought, never mind. 
Them having just one planet is intentional, however, upon my own testing, it seems that making them also start as a size 4 market might be severely limiting the types of ships available at their marketplace (is that how it works? I'm not really sure), so I'm currently looking at having them start at a larger size or whatever is needed (maybe add a secondary faction that adds an advanced market like you see in other mods?)
The IW-365 ship (as bought from the open market on the starting world) lacks the Minimal Armor Package included with the large carrier group start. I'm suggesting adding a blueprint at the start that includes what you wish it to include for the player to start off with. (P.A.C.K. starts the player with a blueprint for its ships 24,000 value - don't know what all it includes). Something to consider so a player can make bought ships from the station have the same load outs.
I do plan to give the basic blueprint to a player that starts with Caparice Trade Co! I'll probably get it done on the next update. About the armor package, it's a separate mod from the IW-365 Carrier and, while the variant you start with does come with it, it isn't a necessary "flavor" mod, since the base IW-365 already comes with paper-thin armor. Adding minimal armor package on top of that just puts the armor at 'non-existent' territory, which is fine!
Again on the IW-365 ship (but this may not be specific to the ship and more specific to the fighter I chose to pair it with). I bought IW-201 Bomber's for this ship. First combat, before the enemy has had a chance to reach my back line and kill this ship, the ship is destroyed. I restarted to see why and paid close attention. The missiles sent out by the IW-201 KILLED the mother ship (IW-365) they were launched from. Friendly fire? This feels more like a bug than intended behavior.
Ah! Yes, unfortunately, this must be friendly fire... To help me find the culprit easier, can you tell me the weapon used by your IW-201 bomber? There may be around 4 or 5 variants of the same bomber with different loadouts, you see!
Thanks for the mod, enjoying it! 
Glad to know! Thank you very much!
From my own playtesting with similar ships, you better hope you've got enough point defence on those modules too, as they don't actually stop explosions from missiles and the likes.
Absolutely true! And don't forget, you also have PD missiles. Don't skimp out!