Please specify the evidence needed
Not evidence but honest comparison, by numbers, I don't want to go untangling this mess with emotional claims as the only backing. Getting lascannons isn't easy, mind you, compared to the other weapons you mentioned (in passing, again, nothing concrete).
Ramjet is potentially your first heavy weapon (other is Quadcannon), costs you almost nothing but money, and is sold by shady characters. Figures it's crappy (maybe bit too much indeed). It does outrange all crappy enemy ships, tho.
As for gauss cannon, it is still lower on the list than lascannon, you can loot it pretty easily off enemies. If it sucks too much, we can think about buffing it.
Edit: 2: To complicate/make things more interesting, i thinck the initial "recruitment" topic should allow also brainer and runts recruitmen, not only the hands one, that would make things have more sense; right now the former ones are avaiable at the start
It is not doable. I won't adress the rest of your post as I did not understand it.