SC is now a MWP product, so not feature complete,
You mis-understand.
People who purchased SC will get ship flight, wings, landings (on all planets), FPS ground and space combat, costuming, storage systems, etc.
Also: the stuff is actually modeled. Your ship has a torpedo launcher? You can walk into the ship and see the torpedos and watch them get loaded.
There will also be crafting, trading, etc.
It's also mod-able and can be run on private servers.
People who purchased ED get the ship-game.
Then you can purchase an expansion to get (terrible) modding, powerplay (I don't even use), wings (or was that season 1), and the ability to crew a ship and launch a single fighter.
FD has discussed a "10 year plan", so I must assume you will need to purchase 9 expansions to get feature-complete.
SC systems will also be PG generated, however with the rule of cool not using science, some people will like that some will not.
As oppose to ED and it's WWII fighters in space?
SC do not have a campaign, SQ42 will have a campaign, however it will be a additional product and not included in SC, unless you are a KS backer.
Which I am.
But for non-backers you can look at the other way... just buy the campaign if you prefer that.
Does ED even *have* a campaign planned in its 9-10 for-money expansions?
Don;t get me wrong: I'm on the forums because I play ED and I play it because I enjoy it... but that's mostly because "there's not much out better that I haven't already played to death".
Honestly: If Egosoft had continued to improve the X-Series rather than lost me as a customer with X-Rebirth; I'd likely be there still instead of here.