It’s a bit of a slow burn for sure. I played its a bit on PC then got it on PS4 in a sale at some point. It’s VERY open world (indeed, open galaxy) and it gives you pretty much no help in terms of having a coherent mission structure or story of any kind. There are basically three roles - explorer, trader, bounty hunter - and none of them are quick to ‘level up in’. Plus the grind to get bigger/faster ships is pretty laborious.
I tried the trader route on PC kind of gave up when I realised I was basically playing ‘Truck Simulator In Space’. 10 or 20 runs to be able to afford a slightly better module on a ship and maybe 100 runs to get a better ship. Ugh. There are web pages that will help e.g. that will tell you the most profitable trade route between two systems but the trading path is VERY grindey.
The explorer path is perhaps a bit more fun, but you (obviously) need to find a bit of space which hasn’t already been fully documented and, depending on where it drops you at game start that could be easy or hard.
The bounty hunter route is probably the best ‘bang for your buck’ in gameplay time terms, but it’s a bit brutal at the beginning when you’ve got a ship armed essentially with a pair of pea shooters.
It’s not a game for everyone, but is joy to be dug out if you have the time and it does do some things, e.g. the bits involving space stations and etc. rather than empty deep space, incredibly well.