Valheim is just so far away from Elite in so many different ways I just don't play it and think "Elite could do it this way" for very much at all, except maybe the fact that Elite has a horrendous "crafting" system, holistically.I think it's a reasonable comparison. Personally I think part of the problem is FD keep trying to bite off more than they could chew, which has always been my claim about Odyssey and it bringing space legs to the game. Space legs won't fix smuggling. Space legs won't fix tissue sampling. Space legs won't fix outbreak missions. Space legs won't fix the under-utilisation of in-game assets.
Some of those, granted, are hard problems. But how hard could it be to fix a basic logic and/or maths problem like smuggling? It worked for ages, and then suddenly it didn't. I even reported it during the beta it came up in. I can convince myself maybe there's some complex networking or wireframe-interaction issue preventing Tissue sampling.... but failing to correctly calculate the cost of a smuggled good? That's basic.
It doesn't matter how big or small your project is, if it's broken, it's broken. Nobody cares how complex it is behind the scenes when it simply doesn't do what it's meant to on the tin.
(Funnily enough, I didn't agree with the Op. Op says they shouldn't bother... I think they should)
And I'm playing it right now. Just don't see any benefit drawing comparisons between the two games. It doesn't solve the issues with EDO.