Thanks for reading. Second journal entry now added.
I think your ship having a crew is entirely up to you. As you say, there’s no crew gameplay in the EVE client, and the lore is not entirely consistent. And I say that having done quite a lot of research around the topic over the years, but I accept it will always be subjective and contested topic.
Personally, I love the idea, which is why I’m writing this narrative, and why I vibecoded an EVE Crews simulator to add the gameplay that’s missing from my EVE experience.