Depends on how you play the game, I know plenty of users who haven't spent any money. I bought it before it went F2P and have spent a little money on upgrading my ship, but still less money than I have spent just outright buying other games.
Intel Core i7-5820K 4.2GHz 6-Core Processor G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory EVGA GTX 980 Ti SC 6GB
Depends on how you play the game, I know plenty of users who haven't spent any money.
I haven't spent any money yet, but those 31c timeships are really tempting, especially because of their epic universal consoles. Besides, I would like to buy a Wells outfit and a Wells temporal science vessel, and if I don't buy ZEN, it would take me several years to earn enough EC (or dilithium) to buy enough masterkeys(for lobi crystals, of course) and the ships.