It does feel a little as if ED is fading into obscurity.
Which is a great shame when one considers the lovely graphics and the feeling of flying that they created.
If only they'd given the gameplay and fun aspects the same attention, then they could've potentially had a really amazing game. Or, at least, a game. Maybe, I dunno, like having some player interaction with things in this massive galaxy. Beyond the paltry interactions that we currently have which sort of renders the vastness of the galaxy kinda ridiculous.
It's big, great! What can I do in it?!
Erm... shoot, scan, deliver.
Oh.
I agree that more interaction with core gameplay or even just your ship would be a good thing, a personal bug for me has always been that when taking a mission to find someone or something and flying to the planet they are located at, "scanning" for the target is basically just waiting around for the game to randomly pop up a USS.
If I'm playing as a search and rescue pilot looking for a back-box or a escape pod then I'm actually just a wait and rescue pilot because I sure as hell didn't do any searching. Interaction with my ships sensors (and frankly a chance to actually fail!) is, to me at least, some interesting depth to the bland gameplay.
All that said, I don't think ED is going to slip into obscurity, season 3 has a lot of promise and really right now it has no real direct competition.