Some specific questions about difficulty settings

The first time I tried this game -- like, 5 years ago, maybe more -- I bounced off it because I just got so sick of the amount of resource farming I had to do, and the multiple levels of crafting (gather A, B, and C so you can craft D and E so you can then craft F...ugh).

A few years later I heard they had added a casual difficulty, so I tried it out again...I liked not having to do the tedious work, but didn't like that there was now NO challenge at all. I don't want UNLIMITED resources, I just want to not have so much farming.

Really I think the ideal situation would be simply if all shops stocked everything you would ever need. That way I would still have to work to earn money to buy stuff, but the gathering & crafting becomes optional.

So (TLDR) my question is:

Have they added more detailed difficulty settings now? Can I do something like what I've described above?

Secondary question: How long does it take to get a Corvette ship? That's my main motivation for wanting to give it another shot.