At this point in time, the game is designed to run on what is now considered to be rather old hardware with both the last generation of consoles and the minimum and recommended PC specifications for the game and assuming that FDev want the game to continue to grow and evolve, I believe that an updated version of the game for the new consoles and newer PC hardware and software will be required. This would allow for the game to take advantage of the new features of said hardware (DLSS, Ray-Tracing, etc.) as well as allowing more ambitious planet-types (Full atmospherics, Earth-likes, planets with more than just 3-5 surface bases, etc.) and environments (Ship Interiors?) to be added without having to deal with the headache of adding them while maintaining acceptable performance on last-gen hardware.
As for the current version of the game, I think it could be handled much similarly to the way Rockstar split the versions of GTA V. Leave the servers online and allow those who have older hardware continue to play as normal, however, unlike GTA V I would suggest continuing to add some feature additions that would work on last gen alongside the updates to the proposed next-gen version.
Just a suggestion of course though, I don't expect this to happen, just voicing my thoughts. This is also all assuming that the current insane state of the game and community get resolved.
As for the current version of the game, I think it could be handled much similarly to the way Rockstar split the versions of GTA V. Leave the servers online and allow those who have older hardware continue to play as normal, however, unlike GTA V I would suggest continuing to add some feature additions that would work on last gen alongside the updates to the proposed next-gen version.
Just a suggestion of course though, I don't expect this to happen, just voicing my thoughts. This is also all assuming that the current insane state of the game and community get resolved.