Effects of progression, or lack thereof

In the current drop, I see two major problems with the progression system as it is implemented today.

First, as you progress further from Vallation Station, the stations degrade in amenities while the player, probably, is increasing their capabilities. The player also has, probably, built a productive base. It might be static or it might be built into a ship. The player has also, probably, built a collection of smaller craft (e.g. gunship, mining, welding, grinding, bulk cargo hauler). Having this sort of support, trivializes the existing contracts/missions while pushing the player in the direction of stockpiling resources (I'm thinking in terms of Ice and Uranium).

Second, as you progress through the stations you are offered the same set of Contracts/Missions, on identical asteroids (although placed somewhat randomly between 15 and 45 km from the local station. This can lead to players abusing the environment at the expense of the narrative framing for scenario.

Suggestion one: Sector progression should include upgrades to stations in the sector. Extra landing pads, lounge areas, Upgrading survival kits to medical rooms. Rentable smelters, gearforges, assemblers, etc. Rentable public storage, secured from access by others or shared across factions but piped to the production tools.

Suggestion 2: Develop a larger pool of contracts/missions and rank them by difficulty. Offer a random set of 5 to 10 on finding the station. When one is completed it is replaced. When one is abandoned, it is not replaced unless there are only 3 available. When the fast travel link is opened, the base difficulty rank is raised and all available contracts are replaced by ones from the next rank. This would help replayability and stop the game for seeming stale after many hours of play. We, the players, need to help Keen by by suggesting or creating additional contract scenarios.