That's not totally right. It's not possible to fly from one station to another where stations are in different systems. The systems are separate instances and you cannot 'fly' from one instance to another. You need to leave the instance to go to another one (SC instance) then go into the next instance with the other station. Now, flying from one station to another within a system? Not really sure. Only ever remember seeing one user video that showed flying from a planet station into space but don't believe they ever went directly to another station. Never seen a video a Dev comment confirming one can fly from station to station within a system.
OP: this has been a core issue of the game since day 1 with Elite having the empty lifeless/soulless feeling. Part of the issue is with the P2P instancing and non-persistent architecture FDev chose to implement. The other major factor comes from the lack of continued development to make it full of life and also from some very poor gameplay decisions.
One glaring error for open was the lack of any 'team' element which would have brought a sense of belonging for players. If the game had forced everyone to pick a side - to pick an allegiance (Fed, Empire or Alliance) things would be very different today. However, today, we have a game where the main factions are essentially meaningless as one can freely belong to all which is very, very odd for a MP game. I can't think of any other multiplayer game where one gets to choose red side AND blue side at the same time. Imagine if there were 'teams' in Elite where, if you were on the Fed team flying through Fed regions, they would be safe as Fed teammates and Fed NPCs couldn't hurt/shoot other Feds, etc. Imagine the emergent gameplay from Empire loyalists sneaking into Fed or Alliance space where every player and NPC they encountered would essentially be an enemy. FDev could have constructed missions around this 'team' concept offering high pay missions that would take a player into enemy regions. Pirates and lawless characters would also stand out as key characters. But nope, today we have a lifeless open mode world that the majority of players simply avoid, and one that is often excused as space being lifeless, blah blah...
It's doubtful FDev will invest in developing a world full of life considering the game is 3+ years old now. But creating faction teams would be very simple to implement yet some loud voices would most certainly cry and that's probably what scares FDev the most. So I doubt we'll ever see a logical outcome and real solution to this sterile Elite world. But hey, it's a New Year, so let's see if this changes Beyond what's currently planned.
I wasn't talking about system to system. I know how that works. I was talking about within a system which you can do. It may takes hours or even days, so it not really worth it.
