This app was mentioned in 2 comments, with an average of 1.00 upvote
Found it! It looks like Solar Siege is the succersor of the the game Space Station which the game I was looking for.
It looks like the developers took their old game off the market and put up Space Station Frontier. Shaddy since I had bought the old game.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Origin8.SpaceStation
Did we play the same game? There was no level grinding. Each level would only pay the first time you played it. After each level you get to pay most of what you made in the level to unlock the new part you just used. There is a $2.99 IAP to unlock the "full" campaign.
Quality well made real game? It was nothing but a reskin of Spacestation which was free last year when i played it.