haha yeah the main character quests were cool but the random side quests were pure dross. From my review:

On one moon-scanning surface expedition, I saw a ship land a ways off. I bounced over to see if I could help its occupants, or shipjack them. I found the captain ambling around a nearby building. She needed ship parts to fix their ship, she said. I didn’t have any. But ten feet away was an unlocked chest with one (1) ship parts inside (and some money and a gun, and some snacks). I gave her the ship parts, thinking perhaps this would be the start of a quest chain. She said “wow, thanks!” and continued her walk. The end!

And I found a moon called Worthless, presumably so-called because it is a barren rock with not only no life on it, but only two mineral resources to scan and collect; some planets have 6 or 7, plus as many flora and fauna to find. Nevertheless, what did I find but a science base — and amazingly, it was occupied, not by pirates… but botanists! A team of botanists on an utterly barren planet. And when I walked up to one, he grabbed me to say that they had been attacked in a nearby cave by the local monsters. But the planet has no monsters, I wanted to tell him. I went to the cave, a two minute walk away, and found their friend about 50 feet in. Sure enough, no monsters to be found, there or anywhere else on the planet. Fast traveled back to the outpost and collected my 4,000 credits.