I agree that, at this stage, more content shouldn't be the priority. They should work on fixing the core gameplay mechanics.
#1 The USS system is just awful.
#2 Engineering is basically an awful upgrade mechanic.
#3 Planetary prospecting is just a timesink.
#4 Skimmers missions are terrible and make no sense.
Easy fixes:
#1 Instead of USS flying past you display them on your contacts panel. Add more varied USS. Allow more engineering materials to be found in USS's. Have more distress calls like ship needing fuel. Ship needing evacuation. Ship under attack.
#2 Engineering materials should work like loot works in almost every other game. You kill an NPC you get loot. You search something you get loot. You finish a mission you get loot. They've made progress in that direction but for some unimaginable reason, they're cheap with the loot. Missions, shooting NPC pirates, pirating, investigating USSs should each give you everything you need to engineer. You should NEVER have to go do tedious prospecting or wake scanning to upgrade your ship. Like every game, you get upgrade materials just by playing the game as you like.
#3 Once you find your planet, it should just take you 10 to 15 minutes to find the materials you want. You should NEVER have to spend an hour on such a tedious boring mechanic. And the wave scanner is just dumb. It's the future and this machine is outputting vague lines that YOU have to interpret. It makes no sense that a system in the future would not just tell you what it's detecting. New players end up wasting hours. No in-game explanation. Moreover, it's utterly pointless.
#4 Skimmers are just a terrible enemy type. Why do they stop pursuing you after you go beyond a certain range? Why are your SRV shields seemingly as strong as your ships shields? Why can't you target them with your ship? Finally, why does system security almost never respond when you trespass and start shooting skimmers. It should take them a few minutes to supercruise and arrive to respond.