Excellent telling of it tbh. Freelancer has often struggled to maintain this balance wheel you mention due to the nature of its static economy (which, I believe was intended during orig development to be fully dynamic, or at least the files suggest they wanted to) and the declining population.
I too believe Smuggling should be one of the most important tenants of FL gameplay and have been looking at possible solutions to boost it, fresh from just keeping rates current and updating routes and hope to be able to share these soon as I flesh them out a bit more. Keep up the ideas and feed them this way!
#JusticeForBurgundy
"Music gives Wings to the Mind, Soul to the Universe, and Life to Everything"
