So I had an idea of something to add to the crew skills to make them a little more useful without upsetting any of the current balance. What if Crew Skills could be used to craft cosmetic kits to change the appearance of our gear and our characters?
For example, instead of giving us a barbershop where we sink money into a vendor, allow BioChem to craft consumable kits that we can use to change our appearance. Instead of an appearance tab, Armormech could craft appearance kits that allow you to change the look of tech armor, synthweaving for force armor, armstech for blasters, etc. I'm not sure what cybertech could create yet.
The most practical way would be to allow crafters to create many different kits that each have a set appearance. I would rather see a system where I could, for example, get an appearance kit for a chest piece and, when I use it, it opens a window that allows me to select the look of the chest, the look of each shoulder, the arms, paint, jetpacks, etc. That way, you would really never see two players who looked the same. I have no idea what graphical issues this might cause, so it might not work. A kit would only be applied to one piece of armor, so you'd need to buy several if you wanted to get completely customized.
Anyway, I thought this might be a good idea to put a little more cash in the pockets of crafters without doing anything to change the game balance. Sorry if I'm rambling. It's been a while since I slept.