Moreover, I've finally pushed past #1000 in Squad Arena just a couple days ago, peaking at #772. For the big boys I guess that's probably not a big deal, but it's a milestone in my f2p journey.
It's absolutely a milestone. I remember it took me more than a year to get to the point where I was finishing top #500 regularly (although that was partly because I took a break from the game after my first 4-5 months of playing and didn't come back until 6 months later ... I was way behind). I only started finishing top 100 every day in the past 6 months and only reliably top 50 about 3-4 weeks ago. Now, I hurt myself with taking a break while everyone else in my shard got better, and I don't think it's going to have to take you that long, but I'm just saying. These milestones are really important and deserve to be celebrated. They're not as easy to break though as it seems because most of th people who post on the forums are pretty dedicated to the game... so it seems normal to have 4M+ gp because almost everyone on the forum has 4M+ gp, but the forums are not the same as the game.
Anyway, congrats.
I've already begun farming Bastila, Jolee Bindo and Jedi Knight Anakin on the side.
Great choices!
The principal challenge right now is the lack of ship building materials for enhancement purposes. I guess I'll just have to take my time on accumulating that.
GW is your best source for those until you get to level 76 or something when the top tier SBM challenge happens. Until then, the 120k you get every day from GW adds up to WAY more than the 20k or 60k 3x/week you get from challenges.
Don't forget that it's better to have 2x level 60 ships and 1x level 30 than it is to have 3x level 50. Maybe commit to keeping two ships maxed and another 5-10 levels behind (because those levels are cheaper to purchase). I can't remember the exact ratio I used, but I did something like that when I was playing though levels 60-85. One of your ships isn't going to be a great ship, and if you choose one ship as your sacrifice then the ships that are closest to their potential are the ships with the most potential to begin with. It would be nice if you could keep up with everything, but you can't, so ... choose wisely? Can't help you more than that b/c you're your own person with your own priorities and sense of fun.
