The player in question was flying a Wolfen, which has the smallest cargo hold. But it's still the case that for every ship barring the EI500, having a cargo hold makes a huge quality-of-life improvement, to the extent that not having a cargo hold amounts to a "newbie trap". They'll try to play with the default hold size, largely because they don't realize that there are better options. They'll have less fun, and some percentage of them won't pick up the game again.If it wasn't for the 5000 credits from the agricultural station, I might had even run out of money for fuel, such is the harship of a new player with a small cargohold.
You can argue about whether the hold sizes should be rebalanced, or holds made more common, but I have a simple proposal that I think should at least solve the "newbie trap" issue: give every ship a "standard cargo hold" outfit (the max capacity/no special abilities hold) as starting gear. Experienced players can still switch to a different hold, or choose to uninstall it altogether, if they so desire, but newbie players will have a vastly more pleasant experience, especially since I strongly suspect most newbies are drawn towards the Wolfen as the "most fun to fly" ship, which also has the tiniest default cargo hold.