Eurogamer has a solid article on why NMS is a "supernova":
As of right now, NMS is my go-to space game. To be fair, whenever a new update comes out for it, it monopolizes my time in the short-run. Eventually, though, I return to Elite. I am curious if this familiar cycle will repeat. Yesterday, I launched Elite, and for the first time in a long time, it struck me as dull and sterile. I wasn't having any fun and quit after doing one mission. I found myself back in NMS. As the above article said, HG has turned NMS from "what could have been a depressingly static procedural universe [sounds familiar] into something inviting, exciting, and wonderfully alive - and all without a microtransaction or paid expansion in sight." The game does feel wonderfully alive now - I love to visit the Anomaly just to see the other players coming and going - and with the overhaul of space visuals it is much more space-y, which is important to me. I still prefer the noir-ish setting of Elite, but in almost every other category, NMS is now well and truly cleaning Frontier's clocks to such an extent it is almost embarrassing.