The combat and ship customization (parts, not cosmetics) keep me coming back to ED over NMS. The core gameplay is somewhat samey with your options being combat, mining, trading, or exploration, but there is a bit more incentive. Players can now colonize their own systems, and powerplay is some complex bullshit that I occasionally participate in.

NMS is kind of a chill vibe, which I don’t mind, but I’m not creative enough to build ambitions bases so once I collected everything I was kinda burnt out. Also fuck fleet stuff.