Maybe a minority opinion here, but... I was (and am) a No Man's Sky fan. One of my biggest issues with the game, though, was that the universe had so much LIFE everywhere. I know that it makes sense in relation to the overall plot (no spoilers) but having life so common made finding life pretty meh. I'd much rather play a game with a huge variety of lifeless planets so finding life, finally, would be massively exciting. Give me sparse life! And a way to escape the confines of settled space while we're at it.
The thing with No Man's Sky is that it's supposed to be in the vein of old pulp sci-fi which was usually quite scientifically inaccurate and more fantasy and philosophy.
I know, and I still love the game. I would have preferred less populated areas but I still love to play and consider it one of my favorite all times games.
When's the last time you played? I ask because there are "dead" systems - no conflict, no economy, not even a space station. If you haven't played in a while, you might want to boot it up again. A lot has changed!
It's been a few months but yeah, I found those! They're still full of life though; I wanted to find sincerely dead planets. I did, but they were harder to find. Did manage to find a low gravity planet and jetpack myself into space though, that was fun.