Randomness in early game

Symmetrical metal worlds are more then suited for the development of competitive play, as their very nature screams uniformity.

Every other world has no reason to be.

Here is a simple solution- play games in two pairs.

The first game, it's played with random spawns on a random planet.

Second game, the players switch and play from each other's spawn from the previous game.

I can still see a few problems in cases of extremely bad spawns, but with a decent spawning algorithm, it would help.

Would it be unreasonable for every commander to spawn with a scout plane? Many of the issues that arise from randomly generated maps could be improved upon and, with a better map generator, potentially solved with easier recon options. Enter the scout plane.

If not a scout plane, then some other type of scout unit. Possibly give the commander the ability to
spawn said unit (for a mex and energy cost). This adds the strategic/tactical choice of how many scouts to build.Round hovering drones come to mind. Unarmed and low health, but any balance measures can be used there.

Being able to have a scout from round start would make it much easier to figure out where to expand and where the opposition is. It would also give us something to do for the first 2 mins of the game.

Actually there are plenty of times when the choice between spawns is more than just number/spacing of mex; for instance when the best mex are on the water... not necessarily a good choice ordinarily esp currently with ships being so slow, but it might be an unexpected and thus bold/good move esp in FFA games. Spawning a in zone where one or more lakes provides excellent defensive possibilities is a good decision even if lite on metal because orbital is so dirt cheap now you can race orbital and exploit other worlds to help fund your main base expansion or just soak up as much of their time and energy on there while you're out among the stars. Build orders aren't that important here, there's a lot of leeway, much more than other RTS.

I would like to then be, not only Symetrical, but Metal Symetrical

Your example isn't a problem with randomness - it is a problem with managing risk. You and mattrmunson both took a risk to find each other with dox and leave your engineers undefended. The risk paid off for him and not for you. The same scenario could happen in a non-random map unless you both start with perfect information about the other players spawn point and where they were expanding.