New player here, unlocked the old expedition rewards because I have severe FOMO in games, will using the expedition ships ruin the game for me?

As the title says, I bought the game on wednsday and been having an absolute blast since, already racked up about 10 hours of playtime despite only being able to play in the evenings.

Here's the thing: I have a very very bad case of FOMO in video games so I found a way to unlock all the previous expedition rewards (1-17) because I didn't want to miss out on cosmetics or unique ships. Now I was careful when unlocking the rewards to not claim any of the ships yet since I didn't want to risk ruining the game for me, but I'm wondering now when would be an appropriate time to claim said ships and start using them without completely ruining my sense of progression in the game if that makes sense.

What I'm worried about is if I claimed said ships and started using them, that I'd feel like I've reached "max level" in terms of ships and have no reason to seek out or create any new ones. Is this justified in your opinion?

Or should I stop worrying and just claim said ships and have fun with them?

I realize this is a bit of a silly question but I love this game so much that I don't want to ruin it for myself which is why I've been going in almost 100% blind aside from a couple tips and unlocking the 1-17 exp rewards.

Bonus question: can the expedition ships be dismantled for parts? And if so, if there any way to get them back on the same character afterwards or are they just gone forever in that case?