Well, it's a game. Elite is clearly almost a post-scarcity society (you can mine anything, you can build anything fast, shortages shouldn't exist, ...), but tbh, a post-scarcity gameplay wouldn't be fun - everything is fine, there are no conflicts (why would there be conflicts when you can have anything?), etc. Even Star Trek (which is a true post-scarcity society because of replicators) doesn't have in-society conflicts and as such they need outer conflicts - with scarcity societies, with aliens, getting lost in universe, etc. There are basically no Elite-like conflicts within Star Trek, exactly because they wouldn't really be there, but on the other hand that would mean a Star Trek-like MMO would be purely about the outer conflicts with aliens (i.e. PvP), because the others need too much effort to create. And it actually is - there are no Star Trek-like encounters otherwise.Shipping goods light-years away is shorter than my 21st century morning commute, yet people somehow starve if I don't do a round to the grocery planet in the next system.
tl;dr It's tough to make a gameplay when the society is (should be) perfect.