Returning player, 23 7 stars-should I start again? (Link inside)

Any thoughts on whether I should restart or not?

If crystal income from arena and fleet is important to you I would restart.

If you are competitive restart, if you play for fun then continue where you left off.

IMO restart; at least that way you have better shot at arena crystals.

Since you didn't unlock ships yet, an alternate strategy could be to NOT unlock ships just yet (don't do complete the final fleet introduction challenge). In the mean time go all-out on farming and Gearing pilots like the 6 Phoenix, Biggs, KRU, Bossk, Vader etc. Then when you have your pilots geared and ready, unlock ships and climb to high ranks in fleet arena as quickly as possible. Refresh your battles if needed. Fleet arena will then give you the steady high income of crystals, which you won't have from squad arena for a loooong time.

I used this strategy on an alt, which had been inactive for 14 months at level 30ish. It works.

Keep farming new pilots to keep up in fleet arena. Farm characters to unlock legendaries as side projects. As time goes by you will be able to focus more and more on other characters, while still staying on top ranks in fleet arena.

Also find a real guild ASAP. Preferably one that does at least heroic Rancor raids and maybe also heroic AAT raids.