Ports have random prices though, it would be a pain if after days of building you end up with a port that buys and sells in single figures, rather than in three or four figures.

I think it would be cool if ports brought in some profit, but only when other people trade at them. It would be good if the ports get shipments at some price (or produce at some fixed cost) and sell at some other price, and buy from users and sell at some fixed cost to unspecified ports or something. The owner of the port would get the profits, but no profits if no one (other than the owner (player or team)) trades there.
I think ports as an alternate route for credit building (instead of planets) would be a cool thing.
And I agree with not having to defend ports. Sounds cool.

Ports have a random STARTING price but they can go very, very high as there isn't a real upper limit. As long as a port isn't traded the prices will go up.

There ARE a few fixed price ports but those won't be created when you build a port.

And a port will bring you profit when you trade with it. That will be the only profit you can expect from the port. Most people will only be building ports in SG sectors to help them defend or get planets started.

Ahh well. It's a bit of a dissapointment. I think allowing traders to build ports has a lot of potential that you aren't allowing it to realize, but the game is fun as it is, so I won't ask much more.

What about nova bombs? It would make devices ports worthwhile if they could be used to buy nova bombs.

Yes, it should cost more money/time to add in that aspect, but you should be able to.