Decide What Your Loot Is For
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The official description gives scavenged loot two destinations: it can be sold for coin, or crafted into all-new gear that lets you take on increasingly lethal dangers.
Coin buys what you cannot find
Selling is described as the path to coin, and the store mentions buying suits and ship decorations with the cash you earn. That makes coin the flexible option: it covers the gaps your own scavenging did not fill.
Crafting answers a specific threat
Crafting is framed as what Raiders do to survive, using scavenged materials and long-lost tech. The advantage of crafting is specificity: you build the thing that beats the machine or situation that has been ending your runs.
Quests give the haul a third purpose
Traders are described as giving quests with differing motives and agendas, which means some loot is worth more as a delivery than as a sale. Checking what is being asked for before you sell is the cheapest way to avoid regret.
Solo or three changes the maths
The store describes playing solo or in parties up to three. A team can carry more out, which shifts the calculation: crafting materials you would otherwise leave behind become worth extracting.
Everything you extract has to be earned on the surface first: see reading the machines and the workshop loop.