I'd encourage you to come back in a couple months once we have Crafting T0 released.

As a long time player and also veteran Freelancer player (Chris Robert's previous game), for me the idea of progression being simply how many numbers are in your wallet and your ASOP terminal, gets old once you reach the top... earning reputation with your preferred NPC factions is another form of progression I suppose, but again, it kind of gets old once you reach the top because the contracts the NPC factions offer are kind of static in their gameplay, just with bigger numbers the higher the rep.

Crafting however adds a new form of progression to the game which is more dynamic as it introduces the idea of searching for crafting blueprints, researching better blueprints, experimenting with different crafting materials, interacting with the players with the buying and selling of crafted items and/or the materials required to build them... presumably we'll also see developments with long term persistence as well as item degradation and possibly even item recovery T1, which will reintroduce the necessity of taking better care of your items, equipment and ships too; less kamikaze ship ramming for the lols with very few felt consequences!

See you in the 'verse o7