Hey, Ubik
What you're asying is very true, but a large start like that makes for a very different game experience from a single-planet start.
I think you and I should come up with a new Facility, the Large-Scale Intergalactic Portugese Software Pirate facility. It wouldn't actually do anything, but your opponents' planets would become unhappy due to paranoia about the possibility of software piracy
Hmm, then again, maybe it should be an Intelligence Operation...