Glad to hear it's being talked about.

Various thoughts:

1. I think the best thing about luxuries is that right now they're the ONLY resource that i'm not certain I won't have plenty of by mid game, and I don't know which ones.  Hyperium and titanium (thought strategic) i feel are almost too easy to find and exploit, so I can build a strategy/open around having them becuase I don't think i've ever had a game where I didn't have both in my opening turns.

2. With that in mind at the very least having unique system improvements, or at least some of them, require luxuries could really help make each game feel different.  Maybe you found enough of the dust luxury to rush the +25 dust one  or perhaps you didn't find any so you'll be putting that tech later this time sort of stuff.  Or maybe you'll need to trade for it.

3. Have them be used in certain election actions and laws.  Maybe you can use some of a resource to increase a specific type of faction on one planet, or have them be used in the passing of specific laws to help balance them out and make it less about just spamming influence.

4. Possibly let it be used as diplomatic modifiers?  By burning some of a luxury you'll get better deals on the next trade for dust or science (a little wonky since you can trade for resources).

5. Drop them into a hero to have them improve a specific output on that planet (sorta like the old EL method of burning it, but limited to systems with heroes only so it's not system wide and shouldn't be tedious micro?).

6. Have them be core parts of the market and the academy system upgrades (which are currently not/barely in the game).

7. Let them be used in the trading system?  Dropping so much of one might let you get increased output from a specific trade resource, or help you with a blockade, or maybe let you leech trade from another company?

I feel the more uses the better since right now they're the least important part of the economy, and making them limited like strategic resources really isn't going to matter as much.

Edit-

They should probably play a big role in minor faction diplomacy and interactions.  Being able to more effectively bribe specific factions thanks to luxuries might help, and then it could carry over once you assimilate them as each resource could give those specific pops a boost.

Annd literally just after i wrote this I finally saw that option pop up in game, so it clearly is there, but i'm not certain why it's so late.  Right now I don't see a reason to have a high relationship with a minor faction vs just assimilating them.

Edit 2-

Ah it's because i finished the sophon quest.  I'm a moron, but it's still odd that it's a quest only option as I feel it's sort of a weak one?

Eji1700 wrote:

 

2. Trade routes feel very "eh".  I went through quite a bit of effort to get them going, and I felt in the end it would've been easier and cheaper to just build science and dust upgrades on my systems.  I had two decently upgraded routes going (one across the galaxy thanks to a well assimilated minor race, which was a really cool interaction), and the outputs were ok, but the main draw seems to be getting much higher luxury yields.....which are useless if you aren't using them in your development plans?  Even if the dust and science yields might have been better if I'd done something different, I feel that routes getting luxury resources is a good thing and should be encouraged as something to look for (also can you get strategic from it?).

Same feeling here at start. I won a score victory with Lumeris, but thanks to new patch, I decided to play until I could tests everything past Era II.

Now I got 5 trading companies with 7 subsidiaries, and bought some ships/efficiency for each of the, let aside I build the improvement that gives 50% from trade in each HQ and subsidiary and the one that gives 100% in one system on my best company HQ. they're producing 1000+ dust per turn, plus science and some strategic/luxury resources.

Looking at this, if Amplitude balances it well, trade may become the base of your economy in ES2. Eager to see next update.

About point 1, I partially agree with you. I have mixed feelings about it. We'll see what happens.