I think I've finally picked up the cause on major gamebreaking bug, at least for me - building outposts on worlds in high difficulty areas. Bethesda really seems to hate that.
Decided to build an outpost in the Serpentis system, where I regularly pirate zealot ships. First hijack mission after that the game went sideways and my inventory vanished completely when switching between ships. I dealt with that bullshit forever in my first playthough, but hadn't had to deal with it so far in this one. I know how to get around it, but it's a pain in the ass that I didn't miss.
As far as the junk goes, I get that as well. I always get a fresh batch of it after I take over a new ship or radically modify an existing one. All the shit laying around the captured ship goes into your inventory, or if you modify, apparently the shipbuilder people give you a whole batch of new shit (perhaps it's paid for out of the registration fee). Yeah, it sucks, but at least you can sell it, and though I get tired of pressing the E key endlessly, it does add up to a lot of extra cash.
By the way, who the **** calls a houseplant a "succulant"?