So playing the Navigators, everything about them screams "sciencey research race". And with their high intelligence citizens, your first reaction is likely to favor scientists en mass for some big science.

However, this is an area I feel the mechanics and the flavor don't line up. The reason is their policy of Asteroid Exploitation. This policy is MASSIVE, it turns each Asteroid from a nice little bonus into its own personal Durantium Power Planet. Navigator core worlds in my experience have some of the highest base manus of any race, because even just a few asteroids is a boost unlike any other.

As such, why would I get a scientist when any boost to manu is worth 4x as much? In fact, their manu bonus is so high its one of the few races I will go hard manu over approval, because again the base is so high those multipliers are truly worth it. What feels like a research race is actually one of the most "industrial" races in the game. Now the asteroid thing is a lot of fun, it turns asteroids from a nice to have into a "I will kill anyone that even looks at an asteroid funny", but its a weird fit on what looks at first to be a science focused race, but in actual play I find is completely the opposite.