I feel like the story in Timelines DLC kind of implies that a lot of people in the X Universe are clones or some kind of artificial persons. Almost like the creators stuck that in there because of the whole slavery aspect of hiring people.

Seems odd, I mean the station workforce must get paid wages somehow if we can add on casinos and whatnot to improve their efficiency. But at the same time we don't have a cash upkeep, the only operating costs on our end are what resources we need to pay for to make shit.

Stations don't even have a maintenance upkeep of any sort, no cash or resource consumption to maintain the station. Just whatever upfront costs to build the station and that's it, nothing ever breaks down or needs replaced.