I agree, OP.
At a high level, there are difinitive trends in what the majority of the player base continually asks for and aside from planetoid landings and holo-me (both clearly seen as foundational steps towards space legs and atmo landings) there has been little else done. The Gnosis was a continued reflection of how Fdev views its role in the continued development of Elite. Which is a clear, "daddy knows best" attitude.
In the beginning of a shared world persistent MMO style game that leans toward service-model the developer does know best. They have a vision and a dream and they put it forth for consumption. But these types of games at some point reach a transitional phase where the future road map becomes a collaboration between the players and the developers. Such to this end Frontier has maintained their omniscient authority... Sometimes to an almost adversarial extent. They failed to properly transition to the collaborative equilibrium that successful MMO style games adapt once they achieve a self sustaining critical mass.
Some may say the PP and BGS is the game space in which Frontier has allowed this collaboration to exist, but I feel that anything the players manage to control or achieve in this realm is largely superficial and never truly affects the core narrative or alters the balance of galactic power in the game. It feels almost concessionary. Furthermore, BGS & PP events that do end up having a more visible impact in the Galaxy are heavily gated and require scrutiny and approval from Fdev before they are integrated in to the global stage. Which I think is a confluence of 'daddy knows best' plus a non scaleable game architecture which clearly is difficult to administrate given all of the constant knock-on errors and bugs that plague the system every time Fdev goes in to fix a mission type not spawning, etc... Oh and of course that there are literally no tools to help players track and calculate progression in PP or BGS endeavors. They all have been crafted outside of the game by an extremely talented and loyal player base. The exclusion of proper UI and controls that are player facing just continues to speak to the fact that both PP and BGS feel like a concession and half-baked attempt to make the player base 'feel' as if it has any input whatsoever in to the honest-to-god narrative arc.
The Gnosis debacle I think is a likely a good thing as I've not quite seen the community this vocal for a long time. With luck it will inspire a new breed of communication, clarity and collaboration between the player base and Frontier. The most healthy scenario of which I feel will be a more even blend of, 'Daddy knows best' but the kids have some good ideas too ;-)
