Doing my full rewatch of RWD and finally at s4 and I don’t know if it was because I started the series as a full-time working adult but I always understood where Oto was coming from regarding the ship.
Like there are definitely unsavory aspects of his character, such as basically taking the ship from VR-LA after having salvaged it, dealing with devils, and taking in Dani, Roy, and Egan at a young age to work for him that would probably violate labor laws (if there were any), but I can understand why he’d be pissed at a group of randos taking the ship he’s paid a lot of money to salvage and repair out for joyrides. It’s definitely tricky because to the crew the Per Aspera is their home so Oto is like a glorified landlord there to remind them that they’re not, but to Oto it’s a priceless vehicle that he salvaged/repaired to do expensive jobs to help keep his business and its employees afloat. I know it’s not that deep but Red said it best when the main conflict was that the crew were adventurers in a fantasy world and Oto was very much a person who could not live in that fantasy world with them.