First of all: WELL DONE!
I just repeat myself, you probably saved me abandoning the game due the clumsy UI they made: :)

I have two ideas what could be added, I don't know if they are feasible:

1. If you select an owned ship in the panel, show the commands from the interact / orders menu (idles, passive, guard etc) either as a menu or buttons style. When the buttons clicked the order issued to the selected ship (basically a shortcut to the F -> Orders -> commands route, what is damn tedious...)

Ideally the buttons could be there while the ship is selected in the sector panel (so you can constantly issue orders while the ship is selected, without selecting the ship again)

2. For owned ships, show the hull/shield bar in the menu. Even better if it can be made configurable what ships we show this information (eg owned, enemies, friendlies, all) so in bigger fights this could be a real game changer.

I've created a basic mockup what I think about
https://imgur.com/hhMi2SO

(the icons I borrowed from the galaxy map, indeed they are not 100% match for the order commands - eg there is no escort or repair there, but I'm pretty sure we can borrow assets from somewhere, or just go some buttons with labels on them as a proof of concept).

If you need any assistance, I'm happy to help in any way (I'm a software tester with a good java programming background and other "tinkering" skills) so if you think it can be done I would help as much as I can.