I'm fully with OP. In addition to his concerns, I'm also worried that may play myself bored of the game before landings happen. I have lots of hours in Skyrim with many fully developed characters (lvl 40+, when I get bored of them), and I still haven't completed the storyline on any of them. But now I'm so bored of the game I don't think I ever will do it.
It would have to be on par with Space Engine, with rudimentary cities (just slightly better than FE2

) where appropriate. But it doesn't have to be incredible right off the mark. But to me, landings are crucial to gameplay (sunrises, mining, photo missions, fuel scooping, near slingshots etc), alongside some way to speed up time (at least in SP) so I can enjoy my sunrises within reasonable time (for slow rotating bodies i.e.).
When speaking of "no landings", what do they actually mean? Can't cross into atmosphere? Or any body, and if so at which size is the magic limit? If atmosphere/terraformed, then fine, I guess I can wait for full version to come along and play regardless. But no landings? Then I think I'll just wait to play until it's there.