Everyone knows all those detailed activities that Braben described are never happening at this point. Everyone who has seen the quality that FD has produced for Horizons and Beyond knows this. Trying to pretend we're somehow getting Braben's original vision is just so ludicrous it's not worth taking that type of suggestion seriously. It's just a smoke screen to set an impossible standard for space legs as some sort of excuse to "explain" why we don't even have a rudimentary version of space legs after 3.5 years. Instead of focusing on what we might actually get, i.e., a rudimentary version of space legs, certain players are trying to pretend that FD still intends to produce Braben's original vision which is obviously not happening.
So everyone has a crystal ball and can see into the future. I have seen the quality of the base game, horizons and beyond, while some stuff is not that great, other areas are, the parts that are not great are being looked into to make them better for everyone.
As to not having a rudimentry version of space legs, FDev have made that very clear, they want to have a reason why to have those legs in the first place, so it needs good gameplay to go with it.
What needs to happen first is investment in the core of the game, which is happening right at the moment if you hadn't noticed and will continue to happen in the future, also with paid for DLC's coming for what is likely to be atmospheric planets (just a guess from all the hints we have had).
As to space legs I don't expect it for another 2-4 years (most likely 4) as the whole team is not working on it. I suspect but don't know for sure that they have a small team working on interiors and such stuff for the future. When the core gameplay has been sufficiently been expanded upon (things like better combat zones, res sites, BGS visuals, NPC comms, NPC crew and wings, more persistance etc) then I can see the majority of the team going over to space legs content. Then there will be a small team to push out things like QoL updates and story updates like we are getting in 3.1 and 3.2. Seems to be the logical way to develop the game.
I am happy to wait for space legs as long as the core of the game gets improved upon which it is. 3.0 was a big step in the right direction with, in my opinion the great trade tools update. C&P is hit and miss, but everall probably better then what we had before and in my view, engineers is far, far superior to what we had before. Still not what I would have done but they were never going to completely change the whole thing.
But that is pure speculation just as yours is. It's just a more positive spin on the tiny and flawed information we have at the moment. Whether it is correct or not, I really do not know and neither do I care that much. It isn't important as at the end of the day it is just a computer game and if it doesn't come out as I hope and want it to and I stop enjoy playing the game, then I will play the games that I have that I haven't touched because I am very much enjoying my time playing ED at the moment.
As to the focus forums with FDev ignoring peoples suggestions, well that is not entirely true. But what they did ignore were complete re-writes of the feature which is not what they were asking for. The new engineers is better then the original proposal because of the feedback as is the C&P system, but still not perfect.
It looks like the Squardron feedback is going well and they have taken a lot on board for the finer details but we won't kow what till later. The same goes for the mining focus forums, but to be honest the main issue people seem to have is the module creep and hopefully they will have some solutions for that.
Whats funny is that people call me white knight, fan boy, DBOBE apologist, when in actuality I am just an optimist. If the game fails (it isn't at the moment) or becomes something I will not enjoy and what I suspect is completely wrong, it's not an issue for me. There are plenty of other games out there. I will not inhabit these forums like a broken hearted fan boy (and there are some on here that are like that) moaning how the game is not what I hoped it would be.