I think that's a fair assessment. NMS's gameplay is broad, not deep whereas something like Starfield is deep, not broad. If you don't like the sandbox parts of the game, like base building, I can understand why it's not your favorite. That being said, I think it's worth revisiting from time to time to check out the new features and expeditions.

I've played every expedition and will usually play that save for a little bit after the expedition is over, building bases, maxing out my freighter, etc. Then I move on to another game until the next major update or expedition. Overall it's a fairly chill game and the community is nice.

yeah it's weird, from the very beginning of development i had this feeling that it just didn't feel compelling to me. it looked very impressive but there was like... nothing interesting to do. and i played noctis back in the day, space tourism is always compelling to me, but nms just feels... trivial for some reason. like playing with a toddler's activity center.

it's such a small thing but the first thing that tipped me off that something was off was the first e3 trailer way back, when the player in the video jumps into a ship with a long, narrow nose and that nose is not visible from the cockpit.