You should go ahead and look for an explanation how to make F9 work. It didn't work for me as well, but there is an explanation somewhere on this forum. The screen is very important, not only because of information it provides, but also due to the number of SM tools available to you. They may not be that important when you want to play Aurora as if it was any other 4x game, but when you want to start your own multi-player role-playing campaign that screen will be critical to make that work.
As for the mineral generation, it is adjusted depending on the population, although it's done automatically. As to whether or not the mineral adjustment should be on the race creation screen, it may be useful, but it's just a matter of convenience.
