ingame vc in every game i have played is not very good about quality. of cource because you dont want to waste too much rescources in developing that as well as the additional traffic that also costs money. besides that every organised group has a ts/vent/whatever server. so if you want voice communication casual with a few ppl then look for a free ts server where you can join up und use that. and yes there are a few public servers... just find them and share the ip with the guys you want to tlk to. yes it would be easyer in a ingame voice chat. but for that few ppl its not worth the work besides as it has been mentioned before here: the game need other important improvments and it would be a waste of time to give the 5 guys that are not organised an ingame a voice chat.
and if that dont helps you can just ask around. im sure you find someone somewhere who is willing to give yo a channel for a handfull ppl on a server he owns.

if we would let the community vote if they want a ingame vc or any other game feature then guess what the results would be like?

i think that not everything needs to be balanced in terms of all has to be equal. if harversting heleoptris is that much more of "work" then it should reflect the price in the market. because that is player based. if no one is willing to pay for that work then simply dont sell it to that price. if someone else does it cheeper then let him have the hard job for less reward, and do yourself a better job with higher rewards. you can abuse this by selling the better stuff and buying the cheeper ones. problem solved.
if everyone thinks that way then the price of that harder to get stuff will rise. if some dont do it... then use it to your advatage.

my 5 cents

a lot of reasons why this is a bad idea were already posted here.

for my personal opinion:
besides your extention points there is only one long term goal in this game. and that is your KB. Your KB is not a thing to be reached in days or weeks. its a thing for months and years to build (or a common goal if you are willing to take that risk to give it all to one person). im totaly fine that this is a thing that will take a long time to build. that is fine.
the only thing that i dont like about it, is that you have to use the most kernels of one sort just for the last few percent of a few items. maybe a more linear approch here would be better. besides that i have no problem with this.
we dont need prototyper that knows all long before they have good skills in their doing.
besides your extention points come over time, no matter how long you are online. your KB needs a lot of ingame time. if you get the money and buy your kernels or if you farm them yourself directly. so this is a thing thats needs a lot of effort. if you dont want that... maybe that is not the career you want to attend to.

its not responding. no crash message.

im trying to reproduce this later this evening. maybe i can figure out if its a specific page.