Avoiding a 'hollow victory' in reaching space and establishing a base + QOL

The current state of survival was a marvelous demonstration of the backpack building and quickly on-boards new players. The level of guidance was solid, but the achievements along this path were a little too linear and free of consequence. I have some ideas, but I mainly wanted to communicate the feeling of hollowness. This kicked in by the time I reached space.

Without compromising the accessibility of the new game loop, I have a few ideas to make the initial scenarios and mission more consequential (some of which will be achieved as more blocks are added):

• During 'weld-up the existing blueprint blocks' scenarios, add requirements for players to add new blocks that achieve a goal which were not part of the blueprint -- creative problem solving
• During contracts that require finishing blocks, force the player to take responsibility for manufacturing non-backpack-crafted resources, to encourage them to build a mobile factory or practice the build-chain. Since this is a hassle (just a pointless task essentially), offer the player rewards they receive from the environment where you complete the contract (e.g. some rare ore they may be waiting for to build the next tier of blocks). Or maybe dedicated a rare resource to this (e.g. uranium).
• Have the contract blocks return ownership to another faction after completing weld-up tasks, so players don't break immersion by grinding down these structures for resources, but with the ability to use factory mechanics without ownership. Or perhaps only the blocks part of completing the contract can be modified by the player (until complete).
• There should be some automated drones or fauna which provide different levels of danger/hostility and opportunity during contracts/early game. Even something simpler like static emplacement / traps / turrets etc.
• Balance areas that felt like they needing (very minor) nerfing: battery life, backpack crafting efficiency or breadth of craft-able blocks

QOL / Some general things I constantly found I wanted but were not present. Features/improvements required to make core game loop more enjoyable:

• Rename blocks in the control panel
• Rename groups in the control panel
• Ship hotbar features (I'm sure these are coming... just saying)
• Thruster direction and 'show on hud' etc
• Continue flying in a direction without having to hold throttle / waste fuel near a planet. E.g. coasting with 'z' only works without gravity. Basic default autopilot? Keep flying forward as fuel efficiently as possible etc.
• Landing gear attaching a ship to another ship should not break the flight mechanics (other than additional mass)