Two small suggestions/ideas

[Dahn]

With regard to crew going outside the ship to repair the hull, there is already a mechanic to do that.
Well, close anyway.
You can pick up/buy a repair drone that, for the cost of a drone, with repair a few hull points on your ship before breaking.
I know that isn't exactly what you were asking about, but it's close eh?

[Gorlom]

Of course you can say "But my ship will always be better than theirs" but that's rubbish. That's like saying "Well what's the point of weapon drops, because I'll -always- have a better weapon already. Sure, most of the time the ship you just killed the crew of will be weaker than you and not worth taking, but if it's one with an extra shield bar, or a glaive beam, or something, and you managed to take it down purely because of your boarders rather than your weapons, why would you not then take it?

But the player ship will always be better then the enemy ships. Two simple reasons explains why:
The enemy ships doesn't have sensors or airlocks.
I guess you can buy sensors. But you can't buy airlocks. That's a pretty big flaw unless you got a full rockman crew.