Heroes impact during space battles

I endorse this, mostly because in Endless Space 1, you got a real vibe of the heroes commanding fleets, since the best ones in that area (pilots and commanders and spies) had so many different "dust abilities" to improve their fleet fights and lower the chance of success of enemies.

Now, lost this link with the dust as a mystical force material (this is really less quoted even into in-game descriptions than Endless Legend, where at least you knew that people getting caought in dust deposits could either die or become legendary heroes), the dust really becomes nothing more than "gold", just the currency everyone in the space use to buy and sell things.

What uses dust in ES2? Aside from upkeep, it's just trading companies, marketplace, trades and buyouts (once glorious system boosting mechanic, now just a "we have ton of dust, we could buyout THAT SINGLE improvement using all this ton of dust). This makes me think of dust as plain gold. Surelly, lot of uses, but only normal, "not-godly" stuff. Nothing more than money.

What uses dust in ES1? Hero skills and buyouts (old glorious ones, where you could buyout at least 3-4 system improvements for mint new outposts, just to make them produce something not in like 20 turns). This makes me think of dust as it's a mystical power where you must learn to use effectively to govern the entire universe.