Do not be concerned with current ship prices, especially starters.
IMHO, it is just a part of their marketing tactics. CIG is a corporation, and like all corporations their primary goal is to maximize revenue and growth. In the case of SC (currently), it is to maintain operations until completion of the game.
At the current state, SC has only 1 silver bullet for marketing, it is the concept that purchase ships now and weep the enormous rewards later. To keep this perspective fresh in backers, they need make Alpha ships very time consuming to obtain. Would you pay $155 for a Prospector if you could purchase this in aUEC after 8 hours of game play? But, if it took you 1 month of playing to purchase the same Prospector, you would seriously consider just paying for it so you can start your mining career as soon as the game launches.
Once SC launches, it is a different story. They will then have multiple silver bullets for marketing, most noticeable are the great visuals and realistic of the sim. At this point they will naturally cater to the majority (timely upgrades on ships) because they have an actual game vs an alpha.