You do the same thing in any number of space themed games. That doesn't make any of them similar. This is nothing like NMS. They are completely different types of games.
I can see why you would not like it if you were expecting NMS but it was never intended to be that. It claimed to be a BGS game in space, and so far they seem to have delivered on that.
Yep, people love to blame the engine but that's not why their games have the same feel.