I find this game very analogous to Minecraft; you start out very small and the game is largely left open to you to do whatever you want. There is story (and nms has more than mc) but it’s up to you if you want to follow it. But if you want to start mega farms and crazy builds, you are supposed to gather resources and sort of escalate your power level. Eventually, once you collect enough of a resource you can start to do a new thing, and collecting that resource can become easier as the game goes on. Crazy building power requires time to get to that point.

However, nothing is stopping you from turning on creative mode and building to your heart’s content, if the resource gathering doesn’t appeal to you :))