Kinda curious about this. I (Armitage) thought I was going to win, as I was on the verge of finishing the black holes, and I never saw any black holes created by anyone else. I suppose it's possible I just wasn't looking in the right places. I think Niwininon even took over one of my systems and eventually killed the core tap I had going on that system. The hard part at the end was getting enough rare ore.
I don't mind not winning, because I discovered and used an exploit apparently before anyone else did, which is how I got so many systems in the middle part of the galaxy. That exploit seems to be removed from the new games . There were empty starter planets in the middle of the galaxy, and if you sent an outpost ship to one you would get a full colony complete with factories. Karma caught up with me though, as I was somehow limited to about a thousand ships when my calculations suggested I should have been able to get around 4500.
Anyway, trying Trader in the next game. After that, military.
Good luck all.