I've been revisiting anno 2205, infamously the ugly duckling of the Anno series of RTS games. I don't mind so much the fact that it's different, lacks customisation and random map generation - I'm bothered because the game is so slow to progress through on challenge settings, and it feels like a game designed just to artificially waste your time; in other anno games, you can always pull tricks to dig yourself out of economic crisis - selling off assets and surplus goods, completing quests for other parties, or taking loans. 2205 is very very confined in terms of what you can do to financially recover in the early game and forces you into a lot of military events.
On my 3rd CMDR, 2nd set of HOTAS, being playing E:D since it came out. So I have some experience.
But yes, a significant percentage of the player base seems to be "I am so witty!" frustrated Incels who live in their parents' basement. At least that's the impression I got from chats on Discord servers of some in-game groups.
Frontiers hasn't provided a meaningful endgame loop. Just the usual "spend in-game resources that took lots of real-world hours to gather on some BS (carrier, station growth etc...)" that has no significant impact on the game world.
Lots of fun can be had with things other players come up with; the Fuel Rats, player factions and them influencing the "Power Play" meta, expeditions, canyon racing, expanding the DSSA etc. - but that means that a lot of game-relevant information and interaction happens outside the game.
So unless you are willing to spend a lot of time on Discord and run a bunch of extra tools (EDMC, searching on Inara etc.) the game itself remains rather shallow.