Bit of a contrast to recent posts but I'm enjoying this more and more (35ish hours in). I keep finding new factions to join, all of which seem to have interesting questlines. I've started the Ryujin, Vanguard and SysDef/Crimson Fleet stuff in the last few days and all have been a good time. I've also discovered that kills in the Vanguard flight simulator count towards Piloting skill progression, which is a big deal as I've acquired a Class C ship and would love to actually use it.
I really appreciate how NPCs will tell you about their personality and values in a conversation, and then react accordingly in the persuade mechanic. When an NPC says something indicating he has a strong sense of honour, and then reacts positively when I appeal to that sense of honour, the game dialogue feels natural and outcomes don't feel arbitrary. Big fan of that, even if overall the speech/dialogue/persuade system is somewhat shallow.
I will admit that the game lacks almost any kind of fun exploration whatsoever, which seems unthinkable in a Bethesda game. It's more Mass Effect than "Skyrim in space" - you pick a planet, fast travel there and then do a mission in a space station or on the surface (which usually involves entering a space station). There's none of the "set off in a direction and see what happens" unless you fancy wandering around a mostly empty planet for a bit scanning plants. I used to mock Mass Effect 2's planet scanning, but Bethesda have managed to come up with something more boring AND more time consuming.
My roommate has played many more hours than myself and spent a good chunk of that time grinding levels by killing animals on high level planets. He's 20+ levels beyond me but barely doing more damage because I've been doing missions that tend to give out great loot. Sort of underscores my feeling that this is a "pick a quest and go do it" game more than a "wander around and see what happens" game.