Yeah, I do tend to get closer to the enemies to shoot them shotgun. So that I can still deal some damage even with bad aim :D
I think that's what I implied in my previous comment on having different ships to increase variation to the game. If there's only one choice, having ship unlocks will definitely be way better than stat upgrades. Of course, a combination of both is possible.
I don't know if having all of these customization features would be called scope creep if it's essential to the game. But yeah, it's up to how you as the designer see it.
Only 5 months to reach this level of quality! I wish to have your dedication and skills.
The mixed review part is probably the quality of rating that I would give to the game at the current state. For me, the most annoying part is how difficult difficult the game is for me. But this is just a lack of skill on my part. And I tend to prefer easier/casual/story-based games. Another one is just still lack of variety of contents that you normally would see in a finished commercial game. This can be worked out as time goes.
I was thinking of how varieties can be added as I typed this out. Having different background for different battles would freshen up the experience a bit. I understand that the game takes place in outer-space so black is the most prominent color of the battlefield. Perhaps spicing it up with different color, such as display of far galaxies, or a solar flare, or black-holes. This is just my 2 cents, sorry if you already have different background in the upper levels of the game.