I only played it for a bit right after launch on PC. It was clearly sort of a grind-loop if you wanted to maximize your suit/ship cargo space, but that seemed like a odd way to approach a game that was touted for its procedural galaxy of planets and lifeforms. I quickly just decided to keep exploring instead of trying to grind credits and such. It was quite meditative and unique when taking that approach. I think I stopped after doing an unrelated OS reinstall. Might have to give it another go eventually to see what it's like after all the extras were added in.

It's still there, strangely enough. Most of the stuff they added over the years have been more things the player can own (base building, capital ships, settlements, bigger ships, etc.) so after you get over the initial hurdle of survival and do the main story you can get stuck in a kinda tedious "Jeff Bezos Simulator" loop of accruing more stuff just for the sake of it.

But there aren't that many hostile npcs that'll outright jump you (as the player, you basically have to initiate combat most of the time, and running away is always viable), so deciding to drop everything and beeline to the galactic core to see the sights is always an option.

Funnily enough, the exact problem you're describing is what I would say happened to Sea of Thieves, where at launch it could be played as a chill out nautical simulator, but now you can't move 5 feet without getting jumped by wildlife and npc ships.

I also liked launch NMS. I would say that the addition of NPCs who speak your language was a huge shift in the tone of the game, and that happened pretty early in the update timeline. It's still good, but it doesn't feel the same.

I thought that was hbomberguy?

Dan Olson did a NMS video? I could have sworn I had seen every video he's ever put out and I don't remember that one