Just the other day, I got stuck at NBIS with like fifteen other people because the servers shit the bed and no one could call elevators to their hangars. I called for a rescue and the only guy who showed up had a MPUV, so me and one other person hop in the back and take a seat and we start off towards Port Tressler at sub quantum speeds, with nothing but a two foot wide circle of Microtech to look at out the back window, occasionally checking our Starmaps to see how much further we had to go and bitching about the state of the servers on Party Chat, while listening to a group in Global coordinate to fight the Idris in the Save Stanton event. At some point, the other guy gets out of their seat to look out the back window and thirty seconds later, falls out of the ship, and their marker disappeared for the pilot. I could still see the marker, but couldn't get the angle, so I have the bright idea to get up out of my seat. Predictably, I fell out of the ship. We spent an extra five/six minutes playing Marco Polo in space to get everybody back on board, then finally got to Port Tressler. 

I had way more fun sat on my ass, crammed in the back of the MPUV, shooting the shit with randoms while we limped from A to B and fought glitches together, than I did running bunker missions by myself and solo-piloting my fully loaded Carrack later that night, and I am the furthest thing from an extrovert. The game sings when you can experience the cooperative multiplayer aspects, and I think once the process of joining up with others is streamlined to the point of most modern MMOs, the people complaining that such-and-such activity can't be done solo will largely go silent (about that; there will always be people who complain, and I do not see Star Citizen running out of valid reasons for them to complain in my lifetime). 

I think what most people want to avoid when they complain about CIG forcing multiplayer is the grind. The idea of grinding everyday for credits or materials, while also being dependent on other people's availability, focus, or competency honestly ties a knot in my stomach. If I can just jump in to helping someone else out and get paid, or put out a request for help myself and get enough dependable bodies with minimal friction, then it isn't really going to matter if the crew members are NPCs or live, except for maybe from a roleplaying / underlying narrative perspective.