It is bad enough standings affect things like refining and production efficiency. I could understand standing affecting things like operating cost of faction owned equipment any mission payouts, but there it should stop.

It is extremely bad game design to force missions on people in order for them to have access to major content like mk3 bots without making the sparks something that can be traded after earning them. For the same reason i think its bad so much loot drops from killing NPC, in that it competes with mining.

The core issue is, everything you do must be rewarding on its own and promote player interaction, and not something you are forced to, just to get to better content. Likewise it is silly to have to grind up standing to get better missions. If you are capable of doing level 6, the grind to get there is just not satisfying, nor fun, now is it?

So no, i strongly disagree and want to see standing have much LESS meaning! It would also make things easier to balance, focus on the fun of the activity and not on the career within the game.