If you don’t like the sandbox parts of the game, like base building, I can understand why it’s not your favorite.

In my opinion the bad of NMS is that you have a lot of game mechanics but they don't link together, not the fact that there are sandbox parts in the game.
Every aspect is on its own which, while not bad in itself, is probably a limiting factor in the long run since in the end they feel somewhat shallow even if they have a lot of potential to link with something else and despite being sandbox.