Nice general topic. For me, it's flight. Period. That's my style. That's why I'm here.
Elite. DCS. FSX. Wherever and whenever I can squeeze more in. That's why I don't give a rat's hairy bum about Space Legs or anything like it very much. The "living world" around my ship doesn't mean much to me, and being able to get out of it and walk around would simply be a novelty for me personally. The SRV is an exception to this, because I really enjoy being in one. So, whatever involves being in my ship or working with it to improve it - combat, canyon racing (a growing obsession of mine), exploration, sites, engineering - I'm doing it. I'm not roleplaying a character in Elite any more than I am while flying with my squad in DCS. I'm just flying.
This actually all started with a strange little bird that's mostly unknown to the world called Jet Squalus:
It's a jet trainer that my dear old dad was on the design team for. It was also the first aircraft like it that I ever flew in. He took me up in it when I was only 10 years old. The insurance didn't cover me at all, but that didn't stop him, and I'm glad that it didn't. This thing made me fall in love with being up in the sky, and that love never went away. So here I am, many a year later, still chasing that dragon up in the air or out in space somewhere, even when I'm down here on earth. I'm not a pirate or a scientist or a space trucker. I'm not a xeno hunter or an Imperial Duke. I'm not a James Holden. I'm an Alex Kamal. I'm a pilot, and that's all there is to it.
I feel like Elite wants us to all consider ourselves eternal freelancers, and I quite like that about the game. Our loyalties aren't carved in stone. We didn't select a faction when we first started, and even if we choose to pledge ourselves to one later on, it doesn't bind us to them. It's refreshing.