This is just me, but I think if you come out with the 2E books, then make playtestable ships and rules available in S&P, following that up with a collection of rules and ships every year, once the rules and ships have had the bugs worked out, you get a broader playtest sampling, to catch more errors, and people will buy the final product with a sense of greater ownership, as in, "I helped make that work!"
Of course, that is just me.