I submitted this as a question but didn't get a reply so I thought I would try it here.
I would like to see the ability to loot ships you have destroyed in the space missions. This can come up as an option at the end of the mission to loot the cargo holds of ships you destroyed. The more ships your destroy, the more cargo holds you can loot, which in turn gets you more credits as well as a chance at items.
What I would like to see is the opportunity to loot ship upgrades, however rare they may be, especially if you destroy one of the large ships.
This would give more incentive, at least to me, to destroy as much as I can and try for one of the big ships.