I'm not a developer, and I'm not commenting on how they are producing the Xbox version because I don't know - all I can do is judge what is said by DB and what I see in my game:
I was in the neutron fields one month ago and I'm back again now - There's a huge change since my last visit....
Here's the neutron field in 1.2
Here's the neutron field in 1.3
David has publicly said several times that the xbox will be the full PC edition, not dumbed down.
So what happens if the xbox is discovered by devs to struggle to render for example the neutron fields when displayed like the PC version (ie thousands of stars displayed)...they can't produce a dumbed down version for xbox, so they have to nerf the PC version.
It appears that they don't want to release an xbox version (however they produce it) that is in any way inferior to what PC users get.
The neutron fields in 1.2 were amazing....you really got a clear sense of the scale of the field.....thousands of stars going on for thousands of light years. Now I can only see a tiny number of stars.
Its a real shame.
Others have reported similar graphical nerfs:
Rings:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=156243
Ships
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=157780
If the change in the way the neutron field is displayed has not been done as a result of the limitations of the xbox, then why ? Unfortunately FD are keeping quiet on the subject. If its to assist with compatibility on lower spec PCs then surely they would have made this change only apply to the "low" and "medium" graphic settings in the game options....it should not be included in the "high" and "ultra" settings. People who have forked out huge sums of money for high spec PCs are really being done a disservice by FD here. I can only hope that if it is due to the limitations of Xbox, then some time after the xbox release FD do the honourable thing and un-nerf the PC.