Mid - level and high level playing is alot different to low ranks. So yes I would consider you a n00b.

To be honest the higher you get the less of a difference those planets make, they are still good but will not makes as much of a difference to your productions later on.

This is wrong a "noob" is a term for someone with no skill or someone that will never be any good at a game.

You seem more like a newb.
Newb- A person new to a game but trying to/will learn to be good.

1/ ok maybe the terminology was wrong.

2/ No, im not saying its a waste, there are a few people that have been able to complete that exotic/dyson part of the chain through npcing alone. So you dont have to pay for them, although by the time you do actually get around to get them that way you will probably not be as useful to you, atleast not as much as if you bought it at a lower rank.

I paid for both the exotic and the dyson back when I was rank 70-80ish and it gave me a great boost to my income. Just now at rank 508, my dyson and exotic conbined count for about 10% of my overall production but as I grow larger and get more planets this becomes less and less. My dyson alone produces a little over 1700 production points.

At the end of the day its whether you can afford to pay for it and not miss the money. If you cant spare the GP's without going without something in RL then no its not worth it, this is only a game.

you're no longer a newbie, you're now a lowbie

*shrugs* depends on how much you learned so far

I learned nothing.. :'(

I learned nothing.. :'(

You learned that "AssViolator" isn't a proper name for your ship, didn't you ?