Great overview!
I find the key right now is managing the timing of your Claims and Attacks. Unless you want to ape into what I consider to be overpriced $SCRAP on the market, the fastest way to acquire $SCRAP seems to be Attacking juicy targets and making sure you do that when you have "claim room" to store your ill gotten gains ;)
Also thanks for surfacing the Favor code! Everyone joining should note the 0 Favor penalty and put in at least 0.01 or something. Though I can imagine the dynamics will get more complex as the game evolves.
I also noticed that favor plays an important role in attacking and to some extent even defending, I hope that this will help promote common efforts in unlocking new planets, especially with new rewards and abilities coming!
Right now I'm really torn between investing more in engineering or battle skills, that's a though choice, but it's what makes the game interesting 😊
Oh I almost forgot some !PIZZA