Yea, metal planets were an awesome approach to a much higher-magnitude game, since it didn't take so long to get massive metal income and you didn't have to burn a ton of energy getting it (the converters were good, but wow-econ-cost).
Definitely glad to be getting good naval stuff, though
I'm hoping the orbital units in the next stretch goal include some thoroughgoing space-based ships of war. We'll see, that may be too likely to trivialize ground/naval/anything-else combat if you can just fly around glassing enemy planets from outside their range.
When I see planets, I don't think of "venue for combat", I think of "conveniently large target"