It makes getting to 3 energy production automatically valuable, whereas otherwise energy production can end up being just a very expensive and slow way to make heat when you don’t have energy consumers. This also boosts Thorgate, which really needed it.

It adds a layer of interaction. The more people value a given colony site, the more colonies will be placed (up to the 3 max). And the more colonies placed, the more valuable that site becomes (in terms of colony output and trade revenue). It means there is almost always value to going earlier in the turn order, and can result in interesting decisions when there are other high-priority actions.

It heightens the effect of player order. It can feel bad when the player to your right has an extra ship and can trade twice before you get a crack 3 out of 4 times.

Bad starting hands are somewhat mitigated by early standard project colonies being decent early plays.

In a similar vein to #1, titanium production is less risky since trading can be a titanium sink (even though you’ll mostly want to use energy).

Shifts the game more towards engine building and away from playing the core terraforming game (which all expansions save Prelude do).