re: Capsules
Remember, Alternate Access was about space station resupply, and during the contract that's ALL we discussed. Even bringing up the idea to NASA of man-rating it would have gotten us shot, and we kept a tight leash on any designs or illustrations that implied we were thinking along those lines.
By your definition, Alternate Access was SUPPOSED to be "minimal." The idea was something cheap and fast that could be implemented in a few years. Such a thing still needs to be done, unless we are going to balance the whole ISS program on the fulcrum of the Russian capsules.