King Gath is a bit of a legend among the Fallout 4 modding community. Having improved the settlements feature of that game with his Sim Settlements mods, he's a bit of an expert on how these things work, and while he does like what Starfield has done with its outposts, there is room for improvement.
"Why don't we have a set of structural foundations for all this production machinery?" said King Gath to PCGamer. "If it's to scratch the same itch as a factory simulator, we need tools to organize things visually—let us snap the machines together on platforms, color code or label things, change the color on the links. Also would love to see more art variety in those machines so that at a glance I can see what is producing what instead of everything being the same generic fabricator."
"I found myself missing some of the settlement mechanics from Fallout 4. Would love to bring back the requirements of providing beds/food/water for my crew. One of the core concepts we embraced with Sim Settlements 2 was that people are what matter. It's the thing that draws us to Bethesda games—without the characters, there's no purpose to what we're doing."
In Starfield, so long as you're bringing the cash, that's all people need on your outposts. It streamlines the process, so you can spend more time adventuring in space, but for those that want to micromanage every part of their mini settlements, it's clear there is room for Bethesda to add some features down the line. Or, perhaps King Gath will step in again.