Refineries don't work like trade ports. They depend greatly on what planet they are on. You get Refinery income based on the number of extractors you own at that planet and every adjacent planet. So putting a refinery on an asteroid that is only connected to your homeworld would be stupid, but putting one on an Ice planet with 4 extractors and connected to planets with an additional 12 would make sense.

That said, as a rule its very rare you have a map set up that lets refineries be used well, and even then as each extractor can only have 3 refineries serving it, you effectively have a hard limit on how many you can have. You would be at little disadvantage if you didn't know how refineries worked and just always built trade ports for income.

Again, some times you get a planet with a lot of extractors nearby where it might make a little bit more than a trade port. But the vast majority of the time trade ports are a better deal, even if it means you have to use the black market a lot of your metal and crystal resources.

You mean capitalship? Akkan for beginners by far, and even pros some of the time. A lot of pros start with a Marza because they want to get missile barrage ASAP, and the Sova can make for a mean rush, but you really should not start with anything but an Akkan until you get experienced enough to pull off the more military based early strategies.

Not really. The Rapture can do it at level 6, but anything at level 6 should not be considered "at the beginning". The Advent Loyalist titan can as well but again, that's a titan and those don't come online until mid game. If anything the TEC can capture stuff earlier than the Advent can thanks to the Corsev now.

It is good if you have scouted and saw that there were Ice/Volcanics nearby.  If not your money is likely better spent elsewhere such as new ships or the first fleet upgrade.  Yes, it does cause a slight drain on resources, but even in the early game that first one is hardly noticeable.

-Huzzah!

Against the AI that works fine, though I usually go with at least 1 military lab ASAP to get Corvettes, as they are fast and good against siege ships, which lets you take out militia faster. If I go for a nearby Ice/Volcanic, I usually send my capitalship to take that one while my first few light frigates take out a asteroid/dwarf. I then build the second civic lab there and can usually get the colonization tech without my cap having to wait too long.

I usually do that against the AI, but it also depends what faction I am and what the scouts reveal. But I always get at least 1 military lab no matter what for the Corvettes. The thing is unless you're TEC, you have no reason to get the tier 1 civic techs early. However, in multiplayer you might have a corvette or LF rush incoming right away, so you don't want to use the logistics slot for a civic lab if it won't be used for anything until you get the second one. So I guess what you should do is keep that slot blank until you can build two civic labs, so that in case you need another military lab or factory its available.

I guess that is an option as well