Comment by Xelbair

The issue is that it is a procgen game, with separate systems that rarely interact with each other and you never get an actual emergent gameplay.

No matter the biome, no matter the planet you just tick check-boxes which systems are enabled or not, but their combinations do not give you anything special back.

No matter what environment is generated you play in very similar way.

Elite: Dangerous suffers from the exactly the same issue. There's tons of interesting systems, yet you will do one thing of your choosing, that will play in the same way all the time. Like a theme park, while the game promises you a simulation.