@Lars In theory, is the mechanic's job to make space pods and ONLY make space pods. We must look at the practical part though. (almost) Noone wants space pods, and therefore the Mechanic's job of only building space pods is useless if there is noone willing to have a pod. The Mechanic pretty much fills the role of a space explorer(no mechanic stays in-station to build pods because noone wants pods), and if the crew wants to go space-exploring they just get EVA Gear and throw themselves through the Chapel's driver, and don't ask the Mechanic to make a pod for them. Even the Mechanic Wiki Page states that "your main responsibility will be constructing and maintaining space pods for yourself or the crew" but it also states that "In a typical round you'll mostly find yourself making a pod then zooming around the station". The Mechanic does not have engineering access to get inside the engi outpost's airlocks, and noone has the resistance to stay awake in space to hack the doors and open them without having to heal or die afterwards in a scenary where most of space ruins that has actual loot can also be dangerous to a certain degree.
1. In practice, crew does not want Pods and Mechanic also does not to stay at the station greytiding if they have the capability of looting spess
@BryanR It's impractical. I found myself 30 minutes station-time to get proper preparations to go to space, more 10 minutes to find the sector i want, more 30 minutes to actually loot whatever i want and even more 10 minutes to come back in a round that lasts 2 Hours. You get all round preparating, looting but no time to make use of the loot.
2. Depending on what you want to do, time is scarce, mainly because of the pod's speed, lack of practical access, gear and major dependance on RNG on whether you get what you're looking for or not.