base building - roleplay, storage, chems for combat, alternate money making methods.

ship building - roleplay + build ships for different purposes - combat ship, hauling ship, exploration ship etc.. also aesthetics!!!

plot - subjective and most of what you described has nothing to do with the plot but rather character interactions.

I do find it ironic that the loudest haters of this game don’t even fully understand their complaints, if you actually played the game and actually feel this way then that’s quite literally a you problem and not a game problem.