I am trying to make it easy to look at the comm directory at the slight expense of the bar's interaction flow. Like you are thinking with the submenu, but the comms directory is the submenu so it is streamlined.
Going to the bar would be "arrive at market" -> press 1 "look at comm/market directory" -> press 1 "go to bar". 1-1 instead of 2; no big deal, just a quick double tap.
I think I see what you're suggesting. It would be a rework of the comm directory such that you can interact with it via mouse or keyboard press, since currently there are no number options available on the comm directory.
I still feel like it is two screens to look at to get the information you want, namely "Is there anything interesting on this planet I care about?". Forcing the player to go the through the comms screen when there's nothing interesting there (i.e. no one to hire, no quests, no contacts), from a design standpoint, feels less than optimal to me. Especially, if you're then diving into the bar to find nothing there as well. It can also still lead to people skipping it if they get in the habit of double clicking and don't bother looking as they speed through,especially if they've got a full compliment of officers/administrators already.
I feel like in a really good user interface, information the player cares about (i.e. what makes this planet unique to interact with) should be presented front and center, from the very first screen. Enough information so that you know looking at any given sub-screen is worth while. Looking at a comm directory screen if there is nothing the player wants to do with it is pointless and just busy work, even if it is quick busy work. If you have AI cores to turn in or want to start a commission, you actively know you want to go there, so no highlighting or extra communication necessary, and you are actively using the screen. The random elements which aren't there all the time are the ones that need to be advertised prior to the screen.
Another way to put it is if a player is being led through a screen, even briefly, you should be able to answer the question "Why does the player want to look at this screen right now?". If the answer is, to see if anything RNG has shown up, then I'd ask, could that randomly rolled presence or absence have been communicated earlier in a reasonable way?
So I'd almost rather the comm directory option at the top level (i.e. "1. Open the comm directory), be changed when officers/administrators, or quest contacts are available. So if there's no one to hire present, it's the default "1. Open the comm directory", but if there's a hireable, do something like "1. Open the comm directory along with independent personnel advertisements". You could also do this with the bar. If there's nothing available in the bar it could say, "Take a shuttle down to visit a mostly empty dockside bar".
Going further along UI changes, I could see changing the text color of the comm directory to some color-blind friendly other color when there is an "!" (i.e. quest action) as well. Change the text color on the "go to bar" to the same color when there's a specific quest interaction there as well (getting roughed up by the local intelligence authority comes to mind). Also highlight the military options when you have a quest to do a particular military action. I know I've gotten confused at least once on which military option does what to accomplish the goal someone has provided me. Highlight the interactions which lead to the quest action in some way, all the way from the very 1st interaction screen. We already have these kinds of meta information details (the ! in the first place), so I don't feel like the highlighting would be out of place. However, this potentially is much harder to code up, as it'd require some kind of flagging system that passes information through a text tree.
The comm directory being the place to interact with your contacts to get missions, but the bar being where you get other missions does feel a bit weird, and I feel like is one of the driving forces behind this discussion. A potentially easier to code rework than reworking the comm directory GUI completely would be to instead add a text option in the bar (instead of the gui mouse like comm directory) if you've got contacts on the planet. Like "1. Pull out your off-brand tri-pad and call...", and then go to a sub-text menu that gives numerical options for the contacts "1. Jill, your military contact", "2. Jack, your trade contact", "3. Jim, your underworld contact". Then getting to your only contact on planet becomes a quick press 2, press 1, press 1. Exiting out of the conversation drops you back to the bar, ready to go look for more missions, rather than the very first planet menu.
You could also add an option "2. Browse through the local personnel advertisements", that then lists "1. Jason, a freshly graduated cadet", "2. Jacelyn, a battle hardened veteran officer", representing the officers that could be hired on the comm directory. If there are no contacts, or no one to hire, then neither sub-menu shows up in the bar menu. This means pressing 2 once, and reading the options is enough to know if there's anything RNG related that might be of interest is on planet. A single, unified RNG related menu.
Essentially, instead of making the comms directory the one stop shop, you could make the bar the one stop shop for RNG stuff. I feel like text menu changes are easier than GUI overhauls, although I could be wrong. The comms directory would remain exactly the same, and would be a fall back to get further missions if the bar is inaccessible (due to hostilities for example). So you would have two different ways to hire officers or reach your mission contacts instead of one like we have now.
Anyways, that is how I'd approach it.
