I've been using a few mods to make ship building better in Starfield and none of them seem to be that popular. I figured I'd do my part to give them a few more eyeballs and give Lemmy a little more content.
- TN's Useful Ship Structure - Adds various buffs to structure components to make them more than just wastes of mass. At a bare minimum, everything gives a little hull bonus.
- TN's Hab Tweaks - Essential the same thing as the previous, but for habs. Mod author tries to tie the buff to the theme of the hab, but falls back on a little more cargo if nothing else fits.
- ComSpike and Conduction Grid - Allows you to buy the titular modules on starships beyond what you had during the Fleet questline. Available in various levels of cheatiness, including barely-cheaty-at-all.
- Enhanced Ship Builder Tolerance Plus - Allows you to fit starship modules together that look like they ought to fit but seem to be just a smidge too overlappy. Comes in various tolerances depending upon how obviously weird you want your ship to look. I prefer the lowest level of tolerance but you be you.
- Spaceship Manager - This actually has several features, but I mostly use it for hotkey power settings. One hotkey for lasers, one for ballistics, and a third for escape, for instance. Very configurable.
I consider all fo these to be essential for my load order, now. They deserve a little more love from the rest of the community.