Most players have a trader or a miner or something like that to help them make money. If you keep your medium sized transport you can go more places, but a bigger ship is restricted by the corporation ID that you use with it.
All this money you save up is probably going to end up being put to good use by funding a fighter or some other combat ship, where you will constantly have to buy ammo and repair supplies. You can create a fighter for not more than 20 million on average.
And there is lots to do, yeah pirating is one thing, and each pirate group has their own specific RP too. There are also military and police forces to join up with if you want to play the other side of that. There are also freelancer pilots doing work for money, and bounty hunters who get paid to kill pirates, along with other things like explorers, secretive organizations, and hostile aliens, etc.