Not sure how much of this is intended behavior, but i came back to the game after a while and wanted to start over. So i started a new world on my existing profile, which to my pleasant surprise kept all my unlocked research, and my inventory.

HOWEVER, i'm not able to spawn any ships i had before, and upon discovering them again, i simply get the "Duplicate research discovered, awarding credits instead" and i still can't spawn the ship.
That includes ships rewarded from tutorial quests as well, etc etc.