I don't know what more to add, buddy. I think your recommendations 1 - 9 pretty much sum the up.
We definately need something more to do in an open universe. Exploring should be more rewarding with more hidden treasures and other cool stuff, like hidden portals or anomalies that allow you to travel between systems.
We also need the option of doing freelance jobs back. I welcomed the option in SW 2, altough the jobs need a bit tweaking. getting about 10000 credits to travel into the next system and wipe out a squadron of 5 berserks is a bit... well, plain :-/
It would be cool if you could dock a station and take on several missions with neat surprises. Such as:
Patroulling a specific sector by following about 6 nav points. Each point has the possibility of spawning 1 or 2 squadrons consisting of 3 to 5 ships. The higher the payment for the mission, the higher the chance of a nav point spawning enemies. For example you could take on a patrol for 1000 credits and encounter just 3 or 4 fighter on specific nav point, or you could take on a patrol for 20000 with a considerable higher amoutn of enemies to face.
Assaulting fighters forces in the current system or a neighbouring system. Once again, the payment will determine how many enemies will spawn. Low payment with spawn just one tiny squadron, will high pay will spawn several squadrons with a possible MS as support.
Assaulting convoys in the current or neighbouring system. Intercept a convoy of an enemy faction and raid it like a jolly old pirate. Again, payment will determine the total amount of transports, their escort fighters and whethever the transports themselves are armed or not.
Assassinations where you have to take out a high ranked member of an enemy faction. Basecally plays like assault, with the sole difference that you are required to destroy a specific target which could attempt to escape and thus, making you fail the mission.
Capture of a specific enemy, plays just like Assassination except that you automatically "collect" the target and must return it to your employer. The difference here is that there is a chance of your victims followers trying to attack you to free their superior.
Transporting cargo. Transporting cargo should be a regular job and always available. The payment for a cargo delivery will determine the chance of a scripted encounter with pirates from happening. So in other words, not only would you have to deal with the regular pirates or whatever faction there is that has you black listed, but there will be an encounter with a group of pirates who are after the cargo somewhere to begin with. After all, a simple cargo run would be kind of boring, right? Obviously, low paid deliveries will have very little to no chance of being ambushed by pirates, while high paid deliveries will have pirates come after you.
That would be a nice selection of stuff for you to do...
If you want to spice things up, you could add even more ships to be buyable, not only fighters but also a selection of different MS, so you have really something that makes it worth taking these missions on.