While playing the Sins Beta 2, I was sort of reminded of my days playing Homeworld. One of the gameplay features that I love in HW was the ability to steal my oppenents ships. I think that Sins would be more interesting if you could do that (especially if it allows you to sell the ships on the blackmarket, assuming that you don't have the logsitics to support it).

Also, you could expand on that idea. Imagine being able to set up a gravity well generator in the middle of a trade route and stealing enemy trade ships (or the occasional frigate or cruiser). First, this would be lost income for your enemy, and second, you would get some credits for selling the ship plus cargo on the blackmarket.