I think Frontier is content with the direction of the game, but obviously they're not content with our reaction. I have a feeling they are bewildered and even baffled at the overall negative response to Odyssey.
Frontier (specifically, Sally) has come out and publicly stated that they are focusing on people who currently like Odyssey and rather than those who do not, so if you are not content with Elite, don't hold your breath, because Frontier is committed to the current direction of the game and won't be changing course anytime soon. In my mind this means even more emphasis on "foot action" and less on flying spaceships in the coming years, something that really doesn't inspire me much. Had the "foot action" supplemented rather than replaced spaceship action, I would be much more enthusiastic about the future of the game.
I would call that damage control.
Trying to keep what little bit is left might be the path of least effort. Making a comeback after the disaster of the launch of Odyssey required a tremendous effort to re-gain the trust (and wallet) of the players that have given up on Elite.
I think the community has voiced their wishes and desires for meaningful gameplay, other than emotes, if Frontier's stance is "keep going as we are", then it's one more lost wallet from my end.
I gave up on having hopes and dreams for this game. Like others said, it has lots of potential, sadly it's squandered behind uninspired gameplay, grind and text walls.
From stats we can see they got about 5000 steady daily players. If that's enough for Frontier, good on them.
