I usually ignore the KH rules on skills and allow players to take star ship skills if that is what their character is about. Of course it does limit them greatly on any mission off of the ship.

I think that guy nailed it perfectly in his blog as to what the game's designers were thinking when they set up the pre-requisites for KH skills. Don't get sidetracked by his NASA astronaut comments. His point was the game is based on classic sci-fi literature from the 1950s which itself was written from the point of view of the  "Right Stuff" era. In classic sci-fi, Bradburry, Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke etc., civilization is scattered throughout the galaxy yet starships (and their pilots) are relatively rare. It feels as if humanity traveled to the stars aboard giant noah's ark type starships to make a multi-generational colonization trip to distant stars. Now communication is conducted by hot shot pilots traveling between the distant stars, kind of like pony express riders. At least that is my recollection of classic sci fi. My favorite being a short story called the Cold Equation.

To carry that logic to Earth's past, the best analogy would be the Age of Exploration during the time of Columbus from the 1400s to the 1600s.  Back then European seafaring nations developed colonies around the globe that were loosely connected to the mother country by ships that might appear every few months. To the colonists it would seem like they were on an alien world, being surrounded by natives with different skin color, culture and traditions. The colony would be an odd mix of the local culture and the mother culture.  Travel by ship was much like traveling through the void, you would point your ship in the right direction and hope you reached your destination. While the the sailors were very skilled they were still at the mercy of the elements and their technology. They could easily end up in an uncharted region which would be a mis-jump in KH terms.  

I don't necessarily agree with the designer's choice in making KH skills so difficult to obtain, but I understand their reasoning.  Ships in SF are relatively rare and the technology primitive by the standards of later sci-fi like Star Wars et al. If everyone had a pilot license then the frontier would naturally be a lot bigger. Our technology today is probably within 50 years of developing most things in SF and in some things like computers we are more advanced than the canon material. My point is not to debate that but more that technology in SF is not that advanced and starships are relatively rare. That is why the frontier is relatively small compared to other sci-fi franchises. 

Another reason for downplaying the KH skills is flying starships around doesn't really make for good gaming. While the occaisional starfleet battle is fun, flying around in a starship is not as exciting in the game as it is to watch on the big screen or to read about.  I would hate to be the player stuck with a character operating a laser battery during a fleet battle. The pilot might have fun but the rest of the crew will be bored.

Just my rambling thoughts.

19-8PF The area beyond the Greater Morass claims hundreds of exploration vessels. Though it is believed that most Frontier races came from beyond the Greater Moras, all information about their origins have been lost. Exploration of the area ceases and it is named the Vast Expanse.

That is alot of vessels in a 12 year period and this is before the UPF got together and organized things. This is also only one kind of vessel.

Also consider that we are given trade tables and charts for trading and that in the descriptions several planets are dependent on trade for their existence.

Then there are pirates. Maybe they went alittle overboard including them in so many modules but pirates are in a business that requires frequent clients. Age of Sail time we had alot of pirates in the Med. but the ones in the Caribean didn't get going until several colonies were well established. The Mayflower faced alot of problems. Pirates wasn't one of them.