While I don’t mind that there is a degree of randomness with expeditions, I would like to feel rewarded for playing longer, not punished. 

I’ve been intentionally slowing down my gameplay by Pristine grinding just one campaign museum, and it always reaches a point where just one stubborn location won’t give up the item I’m looking for. I will have maxed the Knowledge for every item found at that location, 2/3 of the exhibits found there are Pristine, I just need that last one. 

My suggestion is a Workshop Item, created from a duplicate of the item you are looking for. Instead of dragging the item onto the Deconstructor for a Perk, the item could be dropped on the Workstation to create a single-use cargo item. When used, the cargo item would result in you finding that item again. The quality would still be random, so some degree of grinding is still required, on top of the number of duplicates needed to max out that item’s knowledge. It wouldn’t bypass the grind, but would give it some direction to feel like I have a little bit of control, and because it requires a duplicate it doesn’t bypass the initial discovery part of the experience and has some sort of “cost”. 

Example: I want a Pristine triangle Celestial Cell for my museum. After many expeditions, I have a Pristine and Max Knowledge Galactic Bulb, I don’t need or want any more of them. I have a Pristine and Max Knowledge circle Cell, I don’t want those to appear either, if I could just focus on the triangle Cell, my odds of getting one that’s Pristine will be better. So I find an Epic triangle Cell, nice, but not what I needed, I drop it on the Workstation and create a “Celestial Cell Detector” cargo item. On my next expedition to Two Point Orbit I equip the detector cargo item and it guarantees that the resulting item will definitely be a triangle Cell, maybe it’s Pristine (yay!) or maybe it’s just average (or great, or another epic) and I do the process over again. 

Right now I’m just wasting time and stockpiling perks I won’t or can’t even use (e.g. perks for the camera room when all my camera booths are maxed and I’m unlikely to install another 30 of them), and it would be nice to be able to nudge my plans in a positive direction. 

If that would be too unbalancing, alternately: allow us to level up locations further to increase the minimum quality of finds, improving the odds of Pristine exhibits. It can be rather disheartening to finally get a certain item, only to see it’s average.