That "reality" is profoundly disappointing for anyone who watched Braben's original videos, or even read dev descriptions of what they planned for Thargoids and Beyond. Most of those "features" you're describing don't even work properly at a basic level much less reassemble what was originally described. The situation with the LEP and game content is entirely the fault of Braben and FD deciding to underdevelop Elite over the past 3.5 years. We're talking about a franchise that had brought in at least $100 million USD of revenue for FD so far (and that is a VERY conservative estimate based on financial data that is several years out of date now). The quality that we've gotten in Elite so far is appalling, and the ludicrous monetization of laser colors for $1.75 USD each is just adding insult to injury. The fact that LEP owners haven't seen anywhere near proper value for what they paid, which was equivalent to four full years of Horizons-equivalent expansions, should tell you this very clearly.
The big problem with Elite has been multi-player.... that's it. the quality of Elite itself has been great. Again, the life of the game is not over. you cannot judge until then.