Spinward Flow
SOC-14 5K
J1 Free Trader: crew 4 (pilot, engineer, steward, medic)
J2 Far Trader: crew 3 (pilot, engineer, steward/medic)
J1 Fat Trader: crew 5 (pilot, navigator, engineer, steward, medic)
I'd say you're onto something.
Arguably, a gaming group of 3-4 Players can be a part of a crew of up to 9 people and still get sufficient face time while playing. The PCs can be outnumbered by the NPCs, but the PCs can still be "decisive" in terms of outcomes for what happens with their ship/crew. Once you start getting into crew sizes of 10+ (which the Kinunir and Leviathan, as you cite, both do), you start needing PCs to be "bridge officers" (or the equivalent) with sufficient command authority Choose Their Own Adventure(s) in the campaign.
Of course, perhaps the most obvious counter argument to that notion would be to do some kind of "lower decks" style of campaign in which the PCs are "just grunts" filling out the troop roster on a Mercenary Cruiser. The PCs have "no agency" in the command decision making process of choosing where to go/what patrons to treat with (etc.), but once they're deposited into an LZ ... it's Infantry Time™ (just add "hoouah") along with everything that entails. Even if the PCs are the lowest rungs on the ladder, what they *DO* when they're turned loose can potentially be the most decisive of all.
Just because your PCs "aren't in command" doesn't mean that they're UNIMPORTANT.
