First off, ”fleet” is a term that is bandied about, but is often used incorrectly when it comes to SC.
A fleet is a set of ships that sails together.
Test can organize several ”fleets” from among the various members of Test that are willing to either supply or crew ships.
what we have as individual backers is a ship collection. In other words,we have a set of ships from which we can choose to play with during our gaming time.
we won’t be able to have multiple NPCs taking over our ships so that we can sail out in force with a Javelin, and Idris, 2 Kraken types, a Polaris, and fighter escort by ourselves.
we might be able to loan ships, be able to spawn a few ships, but you can only fly one ship at a time.
This, we have a ship collection, not a “fleet”
as for why people have them….ummm, they want them, they enjoy them, they want to back SC…or maybe they are just gamers with big wallets or no other hobbies to spend their discretionary money on…
the reason is different for everyone.
I know I don’t have the largest fleet here by any stretch, but the ships I have, I enjoy flying and it gives me the option to play different loops…miner, salvage, cargo hauler, data runner, etc….and all of these ships can be purchased in-game for in-game currency.