[...] (The gradual move from "space legs" to "base building" to now "ship interiors" as the one must have feature of a space game has been interesting)
I really wouldn't have guessed "ship interiors" as the forum community priority from the 2017-2020 discussions [...]
If I may, I think the answer is here:
and not [space legs in NMS]:
- the inside of your personal flyable ship (because it barely has space for one, sure), fade-to-black to disembark.
For me personally, ship interiors were always more about the large ships, which arguably have the space equivalent, if not more, than the current allotted space for fleet carrier interiors. I never personally needed "ship interiors" for an Eagle or Cobra, as the cockpit
is the interior (especially in VR where you can actually walk around these cockpits). That's not to say it wouldn't be nice to be able to walk around the cargo area of my Cobra, like I can in the [insert name of small cargo ship in X4 that I forgot], but it really wasn't
that big a deal. However, when I'm flying a Type-7 outfitted for exploration in deep space, I'm literally flying an apartment building, so to be strapped in a chair when I am basically flying (and living in) a "mobile base" always seemed lacking to me, to the point where I eventually gave up on large ships and almost exclusively focused on flying small ships, for immersion sake. That and the lack of a crew on a bridge full of empty chairs (not the T7, but rather the other truly large ships)..
[EDIT - deleted to simplify post]
BTW, I'm not just living in imagination land - I've played games with full ship interiors on medium and large ships, and for me it was a game-changer. Exploration is a large focus of my gameplay in games like this, so my ship is my home much of the time. Though ship interiors also offer some exciting gameplay in combat situations as well, especially when coupled with damage control and ship repair gameplay.
Just answering your "question", the implied "Why?"