Hmm. Problem there is that you can't really go dumping technical goods onto a lowtech society. The main example they use in the article is of clothing, which is common to both TLs. That would be easy to repair at low TLs too. In this case, the low TL industries have to fight against the higher TL imports and invariably can't win (unless the local government takes some kind of action against the imports, which it may not want to do for many reasons).
The problem with your cars example is that the low tech society can't maintain them - so the high tech society would have to move in car repairers, manufacturers etc into that country (which is a less subtle way to take over the local economy - though that should ideally actually end up (a) generating local jobs and (b) raising the local TL too).
I always imagined that the low tech worlds in the OTU were kinda like the worlds you see in the original Star Trek series. They're not members of the Feder... um, I mean Imperium but they're in Imperial space and shouldn't be tinkered with by entrepreneurial traders but should instead be left to develop on their own until such time as they're ready to join. The only problem with that of course is that in the OTU they're not all Red Zones.
Certainly, I'd say that no world below TL A should be on a jump route. Even if it's only 1 pc away from a jump line, I think that's enough to effectively put a world in the boondocks. And indeed, looking at the CT Solomani Rim book, I can't find any low tech worlds that are on jump routes, so that's good
.
I've often argued that I never saw the point of low tech worlds being part of the Imperium anyway. Most of the time, the Imperium gains nothing out of their presence. A TL 4 world has nothing practical to offer a TL F society, and is largely ill-equipped psychologically to deal with the existence of a vast star-spanning empire outside its atmosphere.
While art, culture, and possible wildlife and biological resources may be desired by the Imperium, they're very much fringe interests. For comparison, how many people in the western world are eager to spend lots of money on Papua New Guinean or Micronesian cultural exports? Not many, I'd imagine. (I won't use Africa as an example here - there's vastly more interest in that because people of African descent are fairly widespread throughout the western world).
That said, some of the low-tech cultures on Earth do have one big industry in common - tourism. Could some of the low-tech worlds of the Imperium be desirable tourist spots, despite their low technology? I'd imagine that in a hightech society there may well be lots of people eager to escape from the endless bustle of society (heck, people are getting fried enough in our own TL 8 societies today. I just have to watch Minority Report to shudder at how invasive some aspects of the future (personal advertising etc) could be).
What could tourism be like on such worlds? What would attract people to low tech worlds? What sort of planets would be most attractive? Worlds with low population, habitable environment (and life), and low technology (outside the hotels, anyway) would probably be the best tourist spots. There'd be plenty of room for safari hunting, enjoying the local culture, sight-seeing of natural wonders, romantic strolls along the beaches and so on - all away from the nonstop hubbub of home.
Of course, some worlds will just be straight-up poor - they'd be the Somalias, the Ethiopias, the Nuarus of the Imperium. They're probably crippled by internal war, or possibly by taxes that they have to pay to be members of the Imperium (possibly arranged so that the Imperium gets all the benefits and the world gets nothing but used). I can imagine holovid adverts in some cushty TL E suburb showing some hapless folks on the world nextdoor saying "the life support of the people of Shimiili is failing, their hydroponics are dying, and only your money can help them. Donate now..." (and probably having about as much long-term effect as such charity work does today, particularly if the situation is being kept that way by forces beyond the charities' control).
Ack, I'm brainstorming here, was any of that any use...? I do think it'd be interesting to use the poorer, lowtech worlds as parallels to the poorer countries on Earth today though. I think too many of them end up being used as cool adventuring spots while missing the bigger picture...
