I think its a simple point actually, cost effectiveness. In starlancer you are a military pilot with access to all of the state of the art technology.
In Freelancer you are a civilian who knows what is kept from them. Alaska is most probably locked for a reason. Its basically freelancer's version of area 51.
Well, I think that's because Coalition just rocked in technology. Just remember that everything they had was supperior to Alliance. They built a Battleship the size of a station. The only thing the Alliance had to counter their advances were the elite squadrons of very experienced pilots.