Understand this is just my opinion and nothing else. With the new update came vehicle optimization from the webpage. Tried it for a bit and realized that making any premium changes or weapon loadout is going to cost RL money. They also said basic changes are available ingame for game cash. This shows in part at least what their long term financial strategy is. Normally I don’t care, but with all the investment I and others have, this has had me wondering how they were going to be profitable without monthly subscriptions. CR has kept a lot of stuff under wraps, but I was afraid it was all smoke and mirrors. We will see.
I suspect that the temptation when this game goes live is going to be too great for the CR team. They will be selling ships and accessories for real world cash. Right now they are making a killing doing just that and I can’t see them not continuing with what works. You will be able to get all the ships with in game currency but that will take grinding time. The team also seems to love creating new vehicles which might also be a point of sale for the company. Get it first with real world cash so to speak.
The problem being that most of these ships don’t actually exist yet 
I’m really no longer holding my breath. I tried the 3.5 update, because I hoped the new flight system would be better than the old one, but I didn’t even make it that far because the whole UI and control scheme made me want to throw my keyboard against the wall.
I really hope they fix that kind of stuff, but I have my doubts, to be honest.
We’ll see when it releases. I backed it way at the beginning, and don’t regret that, but it feels like they’re in constant ‘money making’ mode.
Ugh. That all came out much more negative than I planned, but it is what it is.
Yep, ingame you have to find where the ship you want is being sold. That makes just buying it a lot more attractive.