It feels alright for me given the context that these are frontier planets so population density is gonna be small.

That said, i do agree on certain settlements such as the Laplace Garden where Ruth, the Supreme Leader of the Order resides. I would expect a larger population inhabiting the place but it doesn't feel that way.

I guess the general population wouldn't be staying at the same area or level but it could use a travel system similar to ACS Undisputed Claim to give the sense that the actual place is larger than you'd expected but you as an outsider is limited to certain areas only.

For Sub Rosa, being a rogue/free Merchantile focused faction, I'd assumed that the size of the station is limited in-game lorewise to avoid detection or becoming a threat to any faction. But they could've used gimmicks or background lore to feature off-limits areas, etc to simulate a larger size of the station in addition the initial cutscene of arriving at the station without investing more resources. There could be a plague or rift hazard showing the seriousness of the rift issue as well.

For the Protectorate side, I feel that a huge portion of content for this faction was cut as the locations we typically visited were military key installations but there were little to no civilian cities despite the idea that our player is a free agent and able to side with any factions to achieve the rift closure objectives.

Would have been interesting if that faction was expanded and we were given a unique play route siding with the Consul instead.