Depends when you played it last time.
Currently it is (again or still) buggy at several points. If you went away because of too many bugs - just stay a little longer away.
Grinding aUEC is a relative thing because with every patch your "wealth" is whiped out and you have to start at 0 again.
You can still make money by ICC missions or those comm satellite missions. Being a criminal, you can find GrimHex (knowing where it is you can find it without).
There are some shops now, but nothing spectacular.
Ergo: if you liked the alpha so far, you will like it although there are bugs and nothing really new; if you didn't like it in the past, you won't like it now.
Sidenote: 2.6 will be released in about a month, including Star Marine. 3.0 beginning of next year. This is the "big one" we are all waiting for.