@quinn If you wanted Staff to specifically run something for you, yeah. Unsurprisingly, there were the usual accusations that the rule didn't apply to players who were friends of Staff or who were Staff.
If I recall correctly, you also had to pay XP if you wanted a large purchase, such as your own capital ship or space station.
You definitely had to pay a huge amount of XP if you wanted to have something named after you, like a maneuver known throughout the galaxy. For whatever reason, that tidbit is embedded in my memory.