On the other hand ED is a simulation in any aspect, so simulating a life that one would have in the ED universe would come out like that - as in real life you also get no story "told" , you just experience it or not. But whether you participate or not also depends on your personal behaviour, for example, in real life a great event is announced, the place and time then in general you have the opportunity to go there - or stay away.
I agree, that is indeed how it works in real life, stuff happens with or without you present. But in real life there are these things happening non-stop. Every decision you make will lead you to one thing happening or another. In Elite, for this to work there would have to be thousands of different and individually branched easter egg hunts at any given time. I should be tripping over puzzles to solve and mysteries to uncover, not go out of my way (turn off the game) and browse some forum to find out what (if any) i can do in the game to experience the story.
Likewise, while i agree that in real life there are things happening all the time and you just witness them or dont, keep in mind that in real life there would be things happening that cater and interest me as an individual. I would not participate in the "Worldwide Cryptology & Wavelenght Symposium" but i would be interested to go to Gamescom or World Airguitar Championship 2017.
Tl;Dr
There is nothing to do in the game unless all you want is mindless dogfighting or solving out-of-game easter egg hunts that are catered to a ridiculously niche audience.
p.s. I dont mind difficult and very specialized easter-egg hunts. Just dont hitch your entire story-arc on it. Make some story content for retards like me and the remaining 95% of ED userbase.