The ship vendor is ~1m space bucks. The mailbox is ~0.5m/.75m (I can't remember which). The GTN terminal is 1.5m. Personally, I'll probably get the mailbox then the GTN then the ship vendor.
There is no requirement to buy one upgrade before you buy the other. The only things which I think are sequentially unlocked are the Fleet Pass and Quick Travel upgrades. And, while you could buy this with an lower level alt, it's definitely easier to generate credits via daily missions with your level 50. Really an economies of scale issue.
It depends. Some of the bonuses are story-progress related. Some of them are legacy-level related. Some of them are character level related. Some of them are Valor/Social level related. Some of them are purchasable outright. Some of them require a combination of legacy and money.
You cannot buy your way into the story progress bonuses or companion bonuses. You can buy your way into Social and Valor items with legacy and money. You can only buy the ship terminals with legacy and money. You can buy race unlocks with legacy and money.
People really give that stupid, histrionic poll too much press.
I'm not sure I agree that it was that buggy at launch. They introduced more bugs by being over-eager to satisfy player demands than the game actually had at launch.
Also, the "when the company pulled the bait and switch" was last week, not six months ago.
This would never happen unless they went the way of Spiderweb.
This was also last week. My brain could be addled today, but it reads like you're writing an obituary.
They're a very loud minority. Unfortunately, their dedication to being loud spurred over-reactiveness in Bioware, as noted above. I'm not saying that the company shouldn't have done anything in response, but there were an incredible number of missteps by the company for a game that only five months old, all in order to please the blitzers, please the PvPers, and please the alt-makers. Honestly, I think they might have been better off picking one of those groups and serving them first. Sure the other two could bitch about being left out, but it wouldn't lead to everyone feeling ill-served or to the "bait and switch" labels.