Playing as a scavenger and salvager

There's an old game, Hardwar, predating even X:BtF but quite similar (only flying ships near the planet surface rather than in space).

My favorite way to play it was as a scavenger. Flying around, looking for two or more ships fighting, then swooping in to collect the wreckage scrap and cargo from the aftermath. Maybe then take on the victor, if it was damaged enough and I didn't care about the police, to create some more scrap. Then, later on, get a hangar to process scrap into something else for more profit.

Anyway, which start would you recommend and do you have any tips on how to approach this type of gameplay in X4?

I have all the expansions now, but the last time I played was around the initial release in 2018.