Reposting this here because it’s just turning into a conversation about Freelancer specifically.
Yes there are. Start paying attention.
Do you see this? This is a penalty. You are penalized by failing your objective and not getting the proper outcome you should have, because of some randomly assigned extra task or limitation imposed on you instead of letting you complete the mission the way you want to like in every other part of the game where, so long as you finish SA, you did everything right no matter how you did it (occasional exceptions like the Chameleon accident requirement aside). Not only that, but you don’t get the max pay options, which are part of the contract, by not completing them. Instead of getting the max pay at the end by simply having killed your target, it’s divided amongst this extra stuff, and if you don’t do it, you don’t get it. The base pay is only the minimum amount for just completing the contract. The amount when accounting for the objectives is the actual total. The only “bonus” objectives/pay are the prestige objectives, which aren’t part of the initial contract and can be added on after accepting it, making them the bonus.
That is how the mode penalizes you. If you want to play it without seeing a sign of failure on your part to complete in accordance with the terms listed, even though you succeed, you don’t succeed as well as you should have, and you don’t get the Mercers you would have gotten otherwise.
No, it’s not actually penalizing you in the same manner that not completing a mission SA in any other part of the game doesn’t, but it’s been established long ago that such an outcome is how the game’s fullest potential was meant to be experienced, and here, by the addition of the objectives, optional or not, if you are a completionist, this is how it is intended to be played. And that was an infuriating decision on the part of the devs.