add randomized gas clouds to space that would hinder space travel by functioning like an atmosphere where space engines work meaning you cant go max speed or you will burn up your ship
in this way ppl would be incentivized to explore and discover routes between/around the gas clouds for haulers to go through
ppl could then sell this information
you could also make the gas clouds 'move' if they used the same system as the asteroids where they spawn and despawn once a week appearing in new random areas (but id do it over a month)
it would also make ppl design cross section oriented space haulers to try get through the gas clouds as fast as possible without burning up
and maybe there could be resources in there