Hopefully, yes, enemy ships (if time/cart space allows) will get added at some point, but my priority is more for planet-level AI for now.
The plant material may change. They were added to be directly recognisable from NMS, but I think I'd prefer there to be less variety, and for each to have a specific "refill" purpose (e.g. refill health, oxygen, mining laser, weapon, etc.). Leaving the stuff you mine to be more for trading perhaps. Dunno.