There are various ways to play the game. At the start progress may be slow and you have to decide if you want to spend on cards. You can buy some that give you more fans so you get more Starbits per mission. Lessons give you skill and that comes into play when you have more fans than skill which leads to ego problems. That can reduce your rewards, but may not be a factor for you yet. I would keep grinding on the missions you can do for now. You will need more fans to do some of them so you can buy cards or take a chance on a pack.
It's all fun as far as I'm concerned, but then I like to collect all the cards.
!PIZZA
Thank you @steevc. I see, I was not aware of the ego problems, one to look out for my star 😊 Indeed very good game. Had not been able to buy any cards, but now that I sorted Hive-Engine, I can look at buying some cards. Cheers
I don't think ego kicks in until you have a fair few fans. He had to add various ways to make people run different missions to limit how much they can make. Not easy to create an working economy.
Enjoy.