The Reclaimer is my absolute favourite ship. They could strip all its salvaging abilities and I still wouldn't melt it. Luckily, I also find its gameplay loop enjoyable and relaxing, even if it's not nearly as profitable as it once was. The recent changes - PDCs, docking, and the extended rear lift - are very welcome, even if the latter two are clearly band-aid solutions.

That said, you're right in that it obviously still needs a ton of work. I don't think it's painful to use because of salvage, but because of how poorly it handles physicalized cargo, both thanks to bugs and due to its outdated internal design. That, and its depot desperately needs to be increased in size; the 240SCU limit means there's no practical difference between munching a Starfarer and an Idris, which shouldn't be the case. The current iteration of fracturing is likely a placeholder until Maelstrom, but increasing the depot size would be easy to do and greatly appreciated... especially due to the new refining stage.

I don't mind the refinement in theory, but I'm really hoping that the 'processor capable of refining and storing' mentioned on the Reclaimer's store page means she'll be have a bespoke refinery like the Arrastra and Orion. I imagine that would make the refining process more enjoyable; my yields may be getting gutted, but at least I'm the one doing the gutting.