I should probably add some more context RE: freighters
Most of the differences in freighters are either cosmetic, or they're only related to 'slots' that are related to C, B, A and S tiers. Now, if you end up playing with your freighter as a mobile base (instead of using a planet with a base and a portal as your 'home' base) then the total # of slots may be more important to you, but they never really were for me.
Money will eventually become inconsequential for most players. So in all honesty, even if you were to accept a 'normal' C-class freighter for free (not a Capital), you can still always play warp/save shenanigans at a later date (once you have a pile of cash) to find a bigger/better freighter and then just buy it out wholesale, if you want. So it's not that the game is necessarily screwing players over, it just may feel that way at first because the game doesn't tell you a lot of this (AFAIK)
There's actually an upside to an early freighter, even if it is 'just' a C class: get a few Frigates, and start sending them out on expeditions. Buy Tritium and di-hydrogen jelly to make frigate fuel with (it's easier IMHO to buy the di-hydrogen jelly and then refine it down to base dihydrogen, than it is to manually farm it, and you can buy both from vendors). The frigate expeditions act as a passive money/item gathering/generation, and you can then just roll that income over into buying more frigates (up to a cap of 30). So instead of playing "wait for a free freighter" you can be farming earlier. And frigate expeditions are good money, in my opinion.
But if you ever get a message mid-expedition about a frigate being damaged, choose to recall it and just repair it when it gets back. Otherwise you may lose that frigate wholesale.
Whatever this is. I don't quite understand the mechanics. Apparently it comes with a frigate and the frigate does some shit for you? I tried to find the captain on the frigate but couldn't. I only had a minute.
View attachment 545649
I want to say that you had to run up the stairs from where your ship lands, and then wend your way up to the control room. I still do this sometimes, out of habit. IIRC that used to be the only way upstairs. But they've added a teleporter near where the ships land. Look around the landing area and you'll find a couple, then once you find them, it will just become habit after a while.
You can also just not do freighters at all, but I would hate to lose the passive cash/item income.