Additionally, the implementation of needing to destroy 6 Onslaughts (plus their brand new officers) to remove a single hull mod is laughably disproportionate, especially since it's still random so it's 6 onslaughts to remove a single d-mod from a single frigate.
That's a disingenuous interpretation of the effect. It's just 240 dp total, it doesn't matter what that DP actually comes from. Could be freighters (so yeah, you should autoresolve those fleeing civ ships), could be like 6 tiny pirate frigate fleets in a row. Could be a full remnant ordo that actually has like 400 dp so there's a pretty good chance you actually get 2 dmods removed out of it or could be a system's worth of derelict defense fleets.
As for wasting it on frigates, spend 10-40k on repairing them first? It can't repair your frigates if they don't have dmods.
I think you'll find many of the skills are a bit nerfed here but that is made up by being able to have 3 XOs. Even if you spend a slot on piracy or starfaring (you don't have to use a logistics officer btw), I'm certain it's still an increase in player power.
Will comment that the "killing X DP of ships" effect also feels like it should be in the Piracy XO tree rather than starfaring (since starfaring is in every other case about maintaining your stuff and finding new stuff, not fighting other fleets).
To me, starfaring is the "I'm gonna explore the sector and survey and loot literally every planet I come across" tree. While you're out doing that kind of stuff, you'll definitely find some opportunities to fight stuff still. Plus I don't think pirates are really concerned with restoring their stuff, they'd probably sell the scraps they'd use to do that instead hence the credit capstone. Additionally, while there is a theme for the each skill tree, they are not intended to only be used within that theme. There's even a loading tip added that says exactly that.