The market could've been a whole layer to drive and game-ify everything: On goo duty? You have to go buy PPE and materials in the market, here's your shopping list. Don't have enough money? Apart from the competitions for big fishbucks, there's a job sheet of things you can do for guaranteed fishbucks at any time. Actual productive jobs like janitor, or degrading things, or things that will piss off other fish like stealing. Want liquor/pizza? It's brought in the house by production into the market, but the fish have to pay fishbucks to get it. Freeloaders don't pay for shit, which incentivizes the fish to either villify freeloaders for actually, you know, freeloading their shit. Or befriend them and try to have them smuggle market goods for them.
It'd be extra work to enforce and drive those kinds of rules, which is probably why they gave it up. But it could drive natural drama and storylines rather than having Ben come up and give direction.