Easier things first: Galnet is empty. I recently had to visualize some thesis about how to engage your community to co-create content with you. It seems like you completely missed every potential for that, seeing as how most of Galnet right now are summarizations of different stuff. You care about lore? Well, there's not much anymore. This was different once. And, to top it off, you have to go through all that summarization which won't interest you in the slightest if you are keen on lore. Why is the state so barren? Where is a simple writer to write out snippets of a pre-determined story? Where are incentives for user-creations? It feels like such a missed opportunity.
I think this is true, somehow Galnet could do with some user-created activity, I'm not sure how that would manifest, and maybe it will in the future, but needs to be a more active resource of information. It needs direct link to the pilot display too so its used, preferably its headlines as pop up data which could be read as you fly. It would be something to read through the space-treking, if it carried regularly, relevant activity. I would like to see Galnet become bigger.
2) Powerplay + Engineering: There's enough criticism out there. From the endless grindfest² of Powerplay to the PvP-Balance gap of Engineered/Unengineered and need to do grindfest material gathering. The latter was patched to be made easier, but its still concerning on how the first iteration even came about. But, as said, not going into depth here. Powerplay was a missed opportunity and Engineering feels like forcing horizon(planet)-content.
I think the PVP balance is an issue, and not sure how that's rectified. All out killa ships, grinded to the max will/does make other forms of play difficult because often they aren't in-game strategies, just users wanting to shoot targets strategies. So while a trader is very much an in-game role, someone maxxed out to simply take out other fighters isn't really a "role". Psychopaths like that don't tend to last long in world before they're hunted and stopped, but in this game respawning stops that. Same time, I like Engineers for the flexibility they give in creating your ship to the designs you require. By and large, the hunting isn't too bad. The problem is there are always a couple of ingredients which take the fun out of it - elements that are cargo are something which remain a problem. 25 modular terminals with no storage is a pain that takes away the enjoyment in pursuing a better ship.
As for how the engineers began, I was fine. If you didn't make the grind, I found them an okay process when taken casually. People wanted the top stuff fast and that was upsetting people, and in fairness that top stuff was what FD had used to lure people with their teasers. But they were never as bad as claimed, much better now.
Seems good to me, I think as with all these things, they're starting out structures that can be built on. Good start.
4) Multi-Crew. Yay, a friend can fly around with me! And... shoot some stuff with cannons. I really don't know what I expected. It's somewhat fun, but in the end... its... well... a missed opportunity for something more.
How about using it to meet people and journey a little. You don't have to shoot stuff. Again, these are foundations. These can be expanded on as they go along. These points are relevant, but I would always caveat that with "right now".
5) Planets. The current iterations we have. The great driving around on planets with some bases. ... Because again, it feels... like a missed opportunity.
Again, as Horizons has shown, stuff is gradually built upon. Hopefully that will improve.
As for the rest, I feel the same - I don't disagree with your arguments of where the game is lacking, I just think you're taking a stance as if this is the final iteration of the game and its empty. It's not, so you have to take that on board - the game is structuring upwards, blending new content with tweaks to old, developing forward. If you consider all the things pre-Horizons, we've seen a lot of gameplay improvements, god a hell of a lot. Not enough to say this is the perfect space sim, but its going in the right direction, it's just a slow process, and I agree, that can be frustrating!
