I actually quite like the idea of civilian starting ship options, as direct contrast to the military ship options. With luck, i think i could implement it into a secret mod of mine, but nonetheless I'd love to see it in the vanilla game anyhow.
Well, we currently have the shuttle.
The problem with starting as a trader is that right now, there is not really any kind of economy.
It might be possible to mod something together, so some things are worth more at some stations (I dunno, never started modding).
But I fear that the start might end up like the very first X-Game. *shudders* Click the spoiler for details.
Spoiler
For those who were never plagued with it: You start with NO equipment (well, one of the weakest shields), in a slow ship with pretty much NO cargo space, and 100 Credits (which is barely enough to get your cargo full of the cheapest stuff).
Pretty sure it took me around 1 hour to actually get the ship in a decent condition (still no shields and weapons, but some equipment and speed and cargo upgrades) and have some money leftover.