Losing 5 hours of gameplay like it just happened to me makes for a very bad first time experience.
And I really shouldn't have to install a mod to get a basic standard feature that any decent game already normally offers (e.g. Valheim, No Man's Sky, an mostly every other good game actually).
Yes, I admit that when I'm fully immersed in YOUR game I'm not thinking of pressing F5 every 5 minutes, especially when I assume the game would adequately perform this repetitive unfulfilling task by itself.
Now I don't think I'm gonna go through the painful experience of starting again from scratch, and I'm probably just gonna shelve the game for now.
I don't think I can recommend Starsector to people I know, since I don't want them to experience the same frustration and disappointment themselves.