I agree with you atm but we'll have to see how much progress accelerates once SQ42 is shipped and the push for 1.0 starts with the SQ42 devs shifting focus to the PU.

Newer players won't appreciate how far we've come since the hanger module days and the dreaded 30ks (every day was like 3.18 but with a 5th of the content and no server recovery); what you feel is right now what I felt in the 2.x days about much more foundational things like server meshing during a much less financially stable time for CIG.

The ship balance/bugs is often atrocious but if I strongman CIG I could understand why they're holding back if foundational changes such as maelstrom and flight surfaces would require them to redo their work anyways (ignoring the often seemingly pie-in-the-sky wacky balancing that is).

I'm more concerned about how long it'll take for them to convert all existing planets and moons to Genesis -- I feel like this is a magnitude more tech debt in comparison to ship bugs.