if you're starting with the generic TN start, you get better early development if you start a colony on luna right away, and delay your terraforming fleet for the time it takes you to put down maybe 2 or 3 thousand infra on luna. getting the population capacity means revving up your civilian shipping, and a few early liners, and the extra trade income (*especially* the magic duranium-from-nowhere civilian infrastructure) makes a pretty big difference in your early wealth.
you dont really want to systematically have infrastructure builds be part of your plan, because that stuff is 100% duranium, which is already a giant limiting resource (since it's about a sixth of all the TN resources by weight found, but many things you build are half duranium by weight). Dur budgeting is *the* biggest big-picture problem, but wealth is the limit you run into *first*.
by the same token, though, a terraforming fleet (and yes, terraforming ships are the only plausible option) represents a lot of duranium and wealth. dont go crazy with it- i personally like to stop once i have . 06 or . 08 atmosphere per year capacity in total, including tech and leaders; YMMV DYODD etc. remember, stomp an NPR and you get a zero cost habitable world (maybe not to *you*. . . ) AND a half billion souls to mine it for you. doing well by doing evil, s'what it's all about.