What did I read from Stardock about the roadmap of upcoming changes...
A second expansion pack may be created that adds multiplayer if there's sufficient demand. Beyond that we will have to see.
Sufficient demand? I can't talk for all others but when the time has come for that second expansion pack everybody has played dozens of games against the AI and talked about their strategies with others hundreds of times.
I think the demand WILL be there. Create a state-of-the art fleet and SHOW the friend or neighbour, who told me about his never failing strategy yesterday, what defeat is really about...
I accepted the former decision to create a single player game, the quality was worth it. Now I have the greatest 4E game since MOO2 in my hands and... I'm sorry... still want more.
So, if you are collecting votes for a multiplayer expansion: ME ME ME ME