How am I screwing up knights of the toxic god? (4.0)

So I'm trying to play a Knights of the Toxic God playthrough for the first time and see all this stuff about how the origin is overpowered. But I struggle, on Captain, to produce enough resources and employ enough people. I'm going bankrupt within 50 years of start. And not getting anywhere near the research numbers others claim.

My empire build isn't trying to be super optimized, I don't want that. But I'd imagine I should be able to meaningfully get going even with a suboptimal build. So, what is the approach here? I've read other posts, but all seem to assume how you go about starting your empire (most just focus on empire build or traditions, not colonization or planet building).

I'm using the planet for resources to fund the strongholds on the habitat, and lagging behind creating more strongholds or districts on the habitat, despite unemployed. My economy constantly lacks trade and i simply cannot build enough total districts to power things. How should I be building up the planet? Should I be colonizing fast? It seemed KOTG was supposed to work well for playing tall.

Any help appreciated!