In short:
-Remove effort/achievement from the game
-Instantly fix complex networking issues because otherwise a few casual players will be miffed, but without making more bugs because that miffs them more
-Allow CMDRs to obtain a fully modded high end ship by staring at any rock for six seconds
-Remove the sense of scale from a "space simulator game" because...a few casuals are miffed
-Remove risk. You should be immortal and rake in billions of credits per second by staring at a rock, but introduce no risk of losing a single credit of that
-Spoonfeed players what to do, because apparently initiative is lost on humans these days
-"Play my way" is an acceptable verbal alternative to "give me what I want"
-Ironically end up with all players doing the same thing, because there's nothing to achieve and therefore nothing to do to achieve it
Bad troll is bad. Even worse at it than I am, I'd wager.
So, to break down your reply and why it's wrong, I provide the following:
1: There is already miniscule achievement in this game in relation to effort put in by the players. Travel to BP, wow, you did it, great. The game doesn't acknowledge this in any meaningful way. It's the players that provide the sense of achievement and for the people who don't regularly play with others in a group, or for those who prefer solo to anything else, there isn't anything beyond arbitrary rank increases.
2: Nobody asked for risk to be removed. OP asked for FDev to fix the incredibly ridiculous and broken interdiction spawn system and noted how the AI doesn't follow the same rules as the player, which is a pain in the butt.
3: OP did not ask for the engineer grind to be taken away. It's noted that the engineer grind should be made meaningful. If you can't understand why it's currently not, you should move along.
4: The only things you can take initiative to actually do/work towards are A) Bigger ships, B) Higher Rank, C) More credits. All of which contribute absolutely nothing to game lore, do not follow game lore or are just a means to an end. Anything else you work for is provided solely by your own imagination or the forum and events coordinated there (Like the upcoming CCC drive).
5. I'd be willing to wager that a vast majority of players already do the same exact thing as everyone else to grind money/rank/engineers as fast as possible.
OP isn't a troll and while you may aspire to be one, I wouldn't put any money on you being even remotely effective at it.
1) Where's your proof for that?
2) If proven, is that any different than most games of the same age?
Otherwise, I think you make some good points - thing is making the game accessible for casual and/or new players need not take away from hard core players - often it enhances the game for them too. Not through shortcutting, but by making the play experience fun where it might not otherwise be - however in Elite's case I think many of the 'problems' are actually important and/or are side effects of other things that are important.
So, there actually is a way to look up player metrics through steam for people who own/play the game on steam. I can't get into their website from work or I'd provide a link, but maybe you should google it before you go on any further about there being no proof for Steam metrics which, in fact, have been in a steady decline for quite awhile.
As for those of you who continue to ask why people who are upset with the game keep playing or keep coming back to the game, it's because ED is really all there is to play right now that's not decades old, populated entirely by griefers, is multiplayer (to an extent) and provides something on this kind of scale.
It's a drug. Mind you, it's still in its early stages and tends to leave a foul aftertaste or you wake up in some stranger's living room with no pants on, but it's still being refined bit by bit. Frontier does indeed need to focus more on their UI and QOL features but they're also working on a fair bit of content to hopefully keep things interesting.
