Just went through a Starfield experience that sort of awed me. Wanted to capture some pirate ships, I took a mission from Freestar Rangers mission terminal to destroy a "Crimson Fleet Captain." I thought it was a person, but that's the name of a ship.
Engaged the ship, battle was fairly easy, took out their engines with EM weapons and boarded the ship. I was immediately blown away by how big and full of stuff the ship was. I've got a couple class B ships, but this one was probably 5 times the size of my Aegis. There were rooms after rooms, a few big open areas, several kitchens and sitting areas, a medical bay, storerooms, weapon rooms, armor mannequins, and a medium size trek-like bridge. The ship had at least 3 levels, and had probably 10-15 pirates to fight. Got to the captain's chair and was able to sit in it because I had leveled up my pilot skill enough. The ship was mine! I did this sort of thing last week with a smaller but impressive ship, but wasn't able to sit in the chair because my pilot skill was too low, so I had to abandon it.
All the time I was fighting my way through the ship I was saying "oh my god" to myself as I saw how much bigger this ship was than the ones I was used to.
For all it's shortcomings Starfield really nailed the ships, they are very unique and even compare very favorably to ships from Space Engineers, Empyrion, and Elite Dangerous. Elite Dangerous ships might give them some design competition but you can't walk around in them IIRC.
ETA: The ship is apparently originally a Crossbow III, it's not all that huge but compared to the starter ship it's massive: https://inara.cz/starfield/ship/1984/
I know what you mean, I board a lot of pirate ships and think it's such a waste that all this technology is used to rob and kill. Many of them would be very cosy places to live. I now have my full 10 ships (I think that's the max), most painted in Rebel Alliance white and red livery. Most were captured, I bought 1 and 2 were obtained through storyline.
But the dilemma of destroying a random pirate ship is nothing compared to the decisions you have to make in some of the missions later on.