Nonsense, those of us who weren't plugged into gaming journos 24/7 enjoyed it on release. I couldn't have cared less that it didn't have multiplayer or whatever. I wasn't even aware of any controversy at the time.

There aren't that many first person space exploration games outside of nms and elite and nms is much easier to get into. It was fun, and still is

And I don't count starfield because starfield is just a loading screen simulator

It's still pretty trash. Every update adds new boring activities but the core gameplay loops still get old quickly and the game is an endlessly scaling grind to nowhere. It's "redemption story" is drastically overrated.