Those 4-pointed spikes are diffraction spikes, not lens flares. They're usually caused when telescopes have a secondary mirror hanging in 4 vanes.
Anyway I like lens flare/diffraction spikes as optional effects you can turn on, but it shouldn't be on by default I think. It's not really given by the program what the observer is. A camera or a human inside some form of protection, that can move faster than light in any case. In real photography you usually want to minimize lens flare, so it seems ok to me not to have it if you're flying around FTL as some idealized camera anyway.