That's very different. Those are add-ons, not core content, and often developed by single individuals.
Has there ever been a large-scale event comparable in size and complexity to Dw2 or the Salome one entirely organized by Frontier?
Very true but to take Babelfisch's point Bethesda games are notorious for requiring mod support to fix bugs etc.
That said this is raised and talked about by the Bethesda communities and we've seen their goodwill fade away with Fallout 76.
So I suppose yes Elite is not unique but no this doesn't mean we should defend Fdev for not caring in anyway about their community.
I think between this thread and the "where you at Fdev?" thread there have been 300 posts in less than a day and all Fdev have bothered to do is add some sarcastic comment from Brett.
Really Fdev are making their own case for how terrible they are at community management here.