Would that [not reacting to inertia inside the physics grid] extend to items that are in the ship as well, like cargo?

Yeah, if you think about it. If we start doing that with the player, we'd have to start doing that with all the cargo. And if your cargo's not strapped down or whatever... and we don't want to have to force the players to go to the back of the ship and get a tie-down out and strap it down. That'd be super silly.

It's one of those things where we take it to the edge of realism and then we have to bring it back to someplace where it's fun.

Totally. I say this one thing all the time: if you want realism, go sit on the bus bench and tell me how fun that was. It's games, after all.