[Fyron]

One thing I recently learned was that there is a keyboard code for marking sectors as being enemy minefields. This can be used with the "don't enter minefields" setting to improve routing of traffic without repetetive micro-management. It can be very helpful when playing with something like Fryon's quadrant mod, which has lots of damaging sectors which will otherwise get ships lost or stuck.

Ships already avoid the damaging sectors on their own. Minefield markers are redundant.

The only components that you should upgrade immediately are Combat Sensors and ECM (and probably Stealth and Scattering Armors too). Being a level behind in them makes a huge, massive difference.