My problem is less about money, more about time to play (I'm currently switching careers!). :p But I'd guess the game's price is bound to get lower in future sales this year, if you want to wait. :)

Yes, the lightspeed-Edition was a huge upgrade and if you like this kind of hybrid it's a 4 Star "have fun game".
The point is, you have a limited pool of officers and most things need to be done with officers, everything is faster but you still spend quite some time waiting for officers to finish their task and later (after the production is automated) waiting for the next event/unlock.
It's a good game but not for everyone.

I remember I never really had an issue with this. Very early on I figured officers were basically actions (not to mention fleets!) so I recruited early and often. I figured I could forgo other actions because every officer I got early was a whole bunch of actions later.

So I "wasted" quite a few resources and turns early on getting extra cheap officers. Which quickly paid off when I wasn't limited later because I had like 3, 4, 5 guys running around.

Seems i don't find the right words to describe my impression.
I didn't found it difficult and i had no problems to reach my goal, i just had to wait more often then i am used too, it just feeled like the game had no real flow. I love strategic games and most hybrides, over the years i played alpha centauri, Civ III, CIV IV, HOI,King of the Dragon Pass, Distant Worlds, MOO...and many more but none of them felt so slow. As i said, the game gave me the feeling that waiting is quite a part of the game