In the game options tab thing in the screen just before you start your game you can adjust game speed and other things. I'm to lazy to open up Sins and look them up sooo I don't quite know if there is an option to increase resource gathering speed or not, but if there is it is in that little options tab thing.
My strategy in Sins is to expand decently quickly early on in the game, but you don't want to expand too fast or your single fleet won't be able to get across your empire fast enough to defend your planets that are 4 jumps away. ALWAYS when you first colonize a planet upgrade the planets development research twice (you do this in the area that has the Explore Planet option, and Increase Tactical/Logistic Structure area). If you don't do this then that planet will drain money from your total income. So if too many of your planets are underdeveloped then you could easily go into negative income and that is a BAD thing as you have already experienced.
Try not to upgrade fleet logistics too fast since each new level of logistics has a higher percentage upkeep cost that goes into effect immediatly after that research is done. Upgrade to a new logistics level when you need more ships, in other words, when you run out of fleet points.
From what I have read and I actually do. Many people will sell meta when they get over 1000 since you don't need insane amounts of metal for research and you only really need it if you are building a big fleet really fast.
So to answer your question on whether to tech up or fleet up. I do a combo, Planet upgrades (exept for tactical and logistic since only border planets really need tactical) and fleet expansion with moderation.
I'm not going to tell you how to play your game of Sins (besides the whole fleet logistics and planet developement stuff since that is a killer for anyone), so build whatever starting Cap ship you want and really do the things you want to do. (Remember! First Capital ship is free!) Just giving examples about how way I play the game.
