Progression was very easy for me once I understood the process of going off planet with the ship and making sure I had enough fuel to make it back, then understanding that the operations mode was an idle mode. I think clarifying some of this information during your tutorial onboarding will be a nice addition to the game.
I haven't even tried black holes yet. Are they shortcuts for your longer range ships?
Artifacts are great. I enjoy rerolling for better ones. My only suggestion is to clearly specify on the UI what the max roll for each one can be, as I have no idea if I have best in slot or not.