Not sure what is the concern or confusion. CIG has been pretty clear on what their intentions are with this.
Armor and Hulls like they currently are can take damage and will require repairs.
Ship modules like guns/shield components/thrusters will wear out and will need to be replaced. Over heating them will cause them to wear out faster. As a components wears out it will start to malfunction at increasing random intervals. To a small degree we already see this with the thrusters and main engines. These components can be fixed by hand but it hasn't been mentioned if the enhancement packs are disposable or repairable too.
Ships will show wear and tear windows will get scratched and dirt and grim will accumulate on the ship skin as well as inside the ship. Its been mentioned that you can go to a car wash of sorts.
There has been no talk as far as I am aware of in regards to ship sales to NPC vendors but I can't imagine they will step away from the norm of ship buy backs being at a reduced rate then the ship sale price from NPC's. Its been talked about that you will be able to sell your ship to other players. Stolen ships will either need to be fenced at a greatly reduced rate or have its transponder replaced which will make the ship no longer marked as stolen.
I can understand a little bit over the distress of ship components wearing out but from a game play perspective there needs to be money sinks or the economy has no purpose. This way of doing it also allows for players to pick their risk level as you can always just run components that are above 80% and not really have to worry about them failing or you can run your Drake with duck tape and junk yard components that need swearing at all the time but when fortune smiles on you your profit margin is a great deal higher. It also adds more layers of complexity as components will take up space so those flying Idris and Crucible will need to guess at what parts they should bring for their support role or have other ships in the fleet with parts. It also adds into the logistics game play along with ammo, fuel, food and water.
I love walking around my ship when its missing two of three gear, a wing ,shell plates and holes all over yet sits like a Nomad on the invisible stealth gear
