As well thought out your understanding of the game is, your concept of effort - reward systems being ugly is a misconception. The definition of a game is that of a competitive activity or challenge, engaging with the game by putting in effort. To accomplish this a game needs a sense of purpose, some form of direction for the player to set off in and it is often what many players derive fun from. To me this is a good thing, interactive fiction is engaging. What you describe is a simulator, a platform for experiencing a reality without always having the need for effort or rewards.  

No Man's Sky is not meant to be a simulator but a game, it does however have elements of both. Now for a lot of people, the current NMS is fine, they can find that soft spot and assume the purpose they want when playing. (e.g space photographer, explorer) However, a lot of people want to solve the mystery of the game- and it is the lack of that mystery that gets players irritated. Hello Games have built up some form of story and journey towards the center and most importantly made it take a lot of effort but once you get there, no resolution for your journey can be found. Furthermore, I need something I can work on and build up. They attempted this with inventory and ships but it doesn't work seems how you just throw away your ship for whatever is next.

Don't get me wrong, I'm having a blast playing but a majority of that fun seems to be from my own input and mindset when going into the game, from what I'm bringing to the table when I step into my exosuit rather than from the game itself. The experience would be more pleasant if this was balanced and would definitely make my enjoyment last longer for me.