It isn't reasonable to fixate on a fantasy vision of what the game will be, or to fixate entirely on what it lacks at this moment, and the two are pretty closely connected. What the game is right now includes the fruits of a tremendous amount of work and passion and you could quite rightly write a paean for many of them. That's worth remembering, it's no more reasonable or objective to focus on deficiencies to the exclusion of all else than it is to wholly ignore those absences. And the rate and quality of the work that has gone into this game, highly visibly and with great overall transparency is a part of that.
Personally I've wandered into a system where blue and turquoise class B stars bled coloured light into the narrow space between them, flown to a nebula, fought alongside (and against) other players in warzones, emerged victorious or dragged my spaceship, half-dead and lacerated by laser-fire back to port and breathed easier as the atmosphere was restored and the sounds of the station flooded back in. I've sided with or against local powers and liberated slaves, donated money entirely against my interests for no more reason than to feel I'd contributed.
I've seen isinona smuggling, a player flying through the superstructure of a coriolis with FA off, pirates and blockades at freeport, revolutionaries at lugh and long queues outside chango dock. I've even seen Michael Brookes posting on the forums a dozen or more times in the early hours of the morning.
Sometimes, I've even just sat and enjoyed the sights and sounds of an unfamiliar cockpit, or a familiar one, or an old favourite I haven't had cause to use for a long time. And that, in and of itself, is easy to overlook and alarmingly impressive.
Wings aren't quite there yet, probably dozens of things, small and large aren't there yet, but it shouldn't be difficult to believe that a dispassionate observer could appreciate everything that *is* there, and the rate at which it has manifested and developed. That's worth remembering. It can be both extremely impressive and also incomplete, enjoyable and yet not everything you want. These are not mutually exclusive.