just my opinion but hey are easy because, high build rates, 3 k classes, and shield mods. They are generally weak to missiles but with topaz and some fodders mixed in that can be taken care of. Their income is incredibly bad, true, but their upkeep is incredibly low as well, about 11% of ship PR. That is lower than Maru ships which tend to run 15-20% upkeep to PR. You should be able to easily afford to build guard ships and fez with no real problem. Other neutral ship might wreck your income if you aren`t well established, but you don`t really need F or C classes when you have the guard ships.
You all say to easy, but isn`t terran and a miner also super easy? and viral as well, only maru and collective are hard since they cant scout.
And most of the server plays the scout races. =P
best way not to insta-ded is to delete all infra on base except housing and mining, and only build up housing slowly so you don`t get neg income from high infra maintaince upkeep and low pop tax before the pop grows to max.
go guardian, remove all infra from the planet except the housing. Once you have positive per turn income slowly increase the infra on your planet ( make sure not to dump a large amount at once, as the infrastructure expenses will get you killed.
After that, begin strip mining; most people will strip mine until roughly 2b in cash, and then decide the route they want to go income wise. Some people prefer to stay low pr, and continue to strip mine. If you want a stable, decent economy for guardian you need to hunt for loyalty colonies.