Here is something I thought about a few days ago. It's more for immersion rather than any actual gameplay purpose, but maybe it can be combined with actual gameplay purposes:
I want to be able to access GalLink. Not to set up meetings or anything (yet), but rather as a means of notifying you whenever you are on the same planets as one of your (few) roaming friends. Basically, you'd land on the planet, check GalLink and it would tell you: "Kiro is currently also on this planet."
As I said, the function here is limited, but it is technology that Captain Steele definitely would have available (isn't that, like, the whole purpose of GalLink after all?) and it would also serve as a nice base to add more functionality to (like setting up meets, etc.)
Of course, the actual number of roaming NPCs is rather limited, especially if we exclude cases like Erra, who seems to be omnipresent. Honestly, did she get into some weird quantum experiment? Because I have the feeling, she is in multiple places at once. That's the only explanation other than her being a crazy stalker. Is there something she isn't telling us? For someone who has a job, she seems to spend an awful lot of time visiting every single tavern in the galaxy at the same time.
But anyway, having that functionality would help once more roaming NPCs get added or if current NPCs like Erra ever get updated to have a roaming schedule.