Its a kind of DRM - a move inspired by the hypothesis that making a game hard to pirate will improve sales.
The data suggests that hypothesis is false.
An EU-funded study found that profits of blockbuster movies are negatively impacted by piracy, music industry profits are unaffected, and profits from selling books and video games are increased by piracy.
I'm not sure. I guess because they go hard in the simulation aspect of the game. Although if we're being realistic, it's unrealistic that you'd have an interstellar space ship without an autopilot. I read that there are mods to enable autopilot, but I also read they can get your account banned, so I stopped looking into them.