Dadgamer here, but only by virtue of time and fertility. I don't think it's a danger to the game to appeal to a wider than usual audience. In fact, I'd say the dadgamers have more disposable income to splash out on HOTAS and other gadgets for it, locking in use of the game (as you wouldn't want to waste the money - got to get your monies worth).
The problems of the game are widely known. Mile wide, inch deep. Simulation vs fast paced fun. MMO vs single player. All seem to be being addressed bit by bit but I'm afraid FD will run out of cash for it or the will to take it on before ED becomes the game we'd all like it to be.
Personally I'd like a (multiple) galaxy simulation, landable planets with life and cities, able to walk on and off the ship in an FPS way with weapons and all the possibilities that provides - stealing ships etc, explore oceans and caves and asteroids for that matter, with a viable economy that trades goods that you can follow like a stock market with crashes and rushes, places where you can be secure to trade and fly (or a mechanism to avoid combat altogether. I'd suggest a 'system wide forced weapons shutdown command' for core systems - an 'inner bubble' maybe) and other places where you can have fast paced dogfighting action, alien warzones and system capture capability, all with modular stations and ships that you can outfit both physically and internally, the ability to build and run stations / cities in space or on land and destroy them potentially with enough of an assault, although with a rebuild option. Running a station means buying commodities / sourcing resources to sell to all the commanders / npc's who grace your system.
Some of those would cause a riot to some ED players, but that's how I'd want it to go if I were in charge. I'll settle for what FD produce I guess until I get 50 million in a kickstarter....
