I just looked up the list of rankings to see how far along I am and I'm halfway, having just hit Merchant the other day - that's cool...now I can feel like I'm getting close to Elite even though I must still have to trade many, many millions yet .
As I've recently been messing around in RESs (found a good one about 5.7Ls from the nearest station the other day) I'm now at the lofty heights of Mostly Harmless, combat-wise.
Exploration hasn't moved at all .