Seems to me they just lack proper story-tellers since the Hunt for Salomé . So, just to show they care about the Explorers, they granted us with new mechanics and a couple of "new" ships. A pathetic matter of keeping us entertained playing minigames.
(Though I am still waiting for a real Exploration Vessel.. Which will never come into this game as any small ship can do it. (Now we have "Ferraris" running the ED Camel Trophy)
It's the price that comes with having this modular concept of space ships.)
So, now it's much easier to discover the "mysteries" of the MW !
Braintrees and fumaroles ?
Great.
It's never going back to the old system, people who have accepted that and invested some time into the new system to see how it can be changed and improved to make it better for more casual players have in fact managed to get FDEV to make some changes to the way it works. The number of bodies in the system now appears in the HUD after the initial honk and even lists the stars so now you can see if you only have stars in the system and jump out without opening the FSS.
Meanwhile people who seem intent on the only solution is having the old system back come on the forums and rant and whine and contribute precisely nothing to the ongoing discussion about how to improve the new systaem to make it more friendly to people who liked the old system.
The old system is never coming back. You have called it, repeatedly as an insult of some sort I guess, "explore without flying", some less polite people might have described the old system as, "travel without exploring" but that would be a rather bad description because there really wasn't much out there to find and players like jackie had many of us in awe at thier achievements, still do in fact when I come across their tags in places I didn't think anyone else had ever been. But there is stuff out there to find now, and there will be more, and we have been given the tools to find it, the old system is never coming back, why don't you help improve the new system to make it better for all players rather than just ranting all the time?
The old system of travelling and exploring was based on one assumption, that there was nothing out there to find, time to put that old assumption to one side.