I've been thinking about the system automation policy, mostly how I forgot it exists. I've use it in the past and found it's decisions to not be the best. I have a thought that may improve it. Final Fantasy 12 has a system that allows the player to program the characters to work off of IF THEN/ ELSE IF statements. You are able to string several of these together allowing the character AI to follow the script. They achieved this with an in game card system. I feel like having the system automation be able to allow players to configure this way would make managing systems alot smoother once the number of systems you control grows. I'll give an example of how the logic could flow:

IF system ownership < 10 turns THEN focus Food

ELSE

IF system industry < 100 THEN focus industry

ELSE

IF system blockaded THEN build ship "(ship name)"

ELSE

Do Nothing

Below I'll post an image of how this works in Final Fantasy 12. I'm not saying their system needs to be put in the game, but I do think having a way to control the automation would be nice. It's very generalized at the moment.