This will be a waste of words and I think that no, don't bother to reply. Anyways.
To get that out of the way: Yes, the capital c content is a joke.
There are two shooting galleries where targets conveniently spawn for us, in one of those, for no reason at all.
There is a RandomNumberGenerator we can play and we can also play the same RandomNumberGenerator but with some text attached.
That's pretty much it, true.
But here it comes.
1) I had a phase where I was very negative about it but I have come to believe that Frontier knows and that they are going to do something about it.
2) , and that's the big one: over the years I've become soooo sick and tired of games in which I, the player, am merely some device to advance through
the script of some wannabe Hollywood writer. Games in which I'm railroaded from setpiece to setpiece and am thrown some combat or whatever bones in
between to keep going. Or/and where I only get to be the eyes and hands of some imbecile who I don't give a toss about. I want and I need that player agency and
be able to have choices and make decisions that have proper consequences.
In Elite, I get that. To a scale that I haven't seen in other games.
"Lol", I hear you laugh, "
how so?" And I will tell you. My actions and decicions
may have very little impact on the galaxy (as advertised) or none at all (as people claim. I'm sure this will change) but they have tremendous impact
on the life of CMDR Pavel Chokev (not even RP talk here). And this encompasses everything: leaving LHS 3447 on the first day, trying to reach that nebula.
Failing that, finding a new home on the fringe of inhabited space. The decision to just not trade. To not grind. The decision to sometimes not pay that fine. Instead, open
fire on the cops every now and then - and always in Empire

Small things like the decision to visit Sol in a Sidewinder, leaving my capable ship(s) 160LYs behind; being
somewhat stuck with a crappy Eagle now. Or even big "meta" stuff like playing only in Open in full acceptance of its ruleset.
Yes, I wish I could do more with that sort of mature freedom but
finding that freedom here is enough for now to keep me from quitting.