I still fail to see where this game wants to go with its multiplayer.
If you exclude PvP, there is no meaningful mp content in the game. I'm not even sure there can be given the prevalent notion of what constitutes the elite experience. There are no dungeons, no rare gear drops, nothing in the environment that would ever require grouping. Without tangible rewards or purpose, there are no PUGs; without corps and alliances there is very limited socialization outside pre-existing groups of friends--which rarely are large enough to withstand churn for extended periods of time. I don't think an arbitrary set of slightly better paying missions or some such is going to cut it.
Even inherently social features like walking in stations are unlikely to solve the lack of social interaction without establishing proper hubs first. (And I'm still not sure the space faring crowd is the proper audience for doll games. One unmitigated Incarna says no.) The huge galaxy simply dilutes the playerbase beyond passing acquaintance and there is no reason whatsoever to trust the other guy.
PvP on the other hand is just plain gimped. The underlying architecture (which won't change) prevents any sort of meaningful fleet combat. Even area denial is pretty much out and thus player driven conflicts. Without either, pvp is just a quick action fix. Something mmobas (hello fractured space) are generally much better at--they minimize waiting times, suppress cheating and usually offer progression and a variety of valid playing styles. ED ... offers pew pew. Sure: it's fun for a while, but how many people are going to stick with it once the novelty wears off?
So, no. Unless Frontier have a long-term plan to adress these issues and are prepared to exclude solo players from significant rewards (with predictable outrage), I personally think multiplayer is a nice cash grab, but otherwise a complete waste of time and resources. There is however an awesome single player game trying to break free.
