This is something that I would love to see implemented, Steam Cloud for saving your saved games, I play on my laptop and desktop having the games automatically sync between computers without having to think about it is a great feature
This is surprisingly useful for the few games that can run on my rig and laptop. However, I'm unaware of the cost of implementing this. Valve may demand an arm and a leg for this feature.
Saves are important, like anything I am using that can be interrupted, I like to be able to return to it at a later time once I can give it my full attention again - if it lasts longer than a couple minutes, lack of a save anywhere and reload later system is very notable because IRL doesn't give a crap about me reaching the appropriate save point.
Steam Cloud I am not so sure about, that would be a deal that would have to be worked out with Valve / Steam, so depending on what it costs, it may not be worth it. I haven't found a whole lot of games that use it but that may just be because I don't look for it.
Those are good points, but I maintain that this is a rougelike(like). Saving is pretty unusual overall. I know games like Dorf Fort and Dungeons of Dredmor use saves, but if the scope of the game is anywhere near the length of the demo in time commitment, then there's really no cause for it, at least not for Cloud integration at launch.
Seeing as how the only pertinent info to save are:
Kestrel's health, configuration, weapons, crew, crew names, crew health, resources, and current Zone, there's actually not all that much data to save. If they really wanted to, they could possibly even implement it as a save code like an old NES cartridge that determines the player's game progress and equipment.