Good shot at starting a constructive debate Bran.
I think a ED's failure to win the category shows where we are in the games development commercially speaking. The games industry is fiercely competitive as each publisher is competing for the pocket money of a very fickle audience. Today's generation quickly get bored if a game does not push all the right buttons fast enough. I am not having a go at anyone, I'm just saying it how it is. It is an issue of the modern age.
Frontier are attempting to walk a commercial tightrope. Sitting on one end of the pole you have those of us who have the long term interests of the game at our hearts. On the other end of the pole you have the bank manager demanding new customers. He's a heavy bloke that bank manager!
I expect the current focus on the pew pew aspect of the game is driven largely by the commercial necessity of bringing in new players. I expect the deal struck with the consoles also drove development in certain areas. I am not criticising pew pew either. It is one part of the game that is as important as all the others.
I look forward to the time when the rest of the game gets attention. The core mechanics, the mission systems, exploration, trading, mining or whatever. A time when the aesthetics and pew pew can be put on the back burner. It will be this day that ED will win the awards. Until that day it is not worthy of most categories.
My final point is that ED has one thing that no other game has to my knowledge and it really should be exploited more. That is the recreation of our Galaxy that is our playground. At the end of each session, I set my ship into a spin and then watch the stars swirl around me. I lose myself for a while, dreaming of the countless worlds and civilisations out there. Each star circled by a collection of planets which in turn could host some exotic lifeforms. This alone is worth every penny I spent and this alone is why I keep playing.