Right, so as a fellow patient gamer I finally got around to trying this and I find it to be a solid 7.5/10 game.
I loved loved loved exploring in the Elite: Dangerous world and seeing all the planets, outfitting my ship to do fuel scooping and going out into the vast expanse. This doesn't quite scratch the itch in that sense, but I am still having a blast.
Combat is fun, but inventory management is not really something I enjoy although I haven't started experimenting with outposts etc.
I'm considering getting a mod to help with that (make resources that I have available from anywhere, if one like that exists.). The questlines are okay, the factions interesting enough to make them different from one another and stealing ships from spacers, ecliptic and colonists alike is a lot of fun. Pity the game caps you to 10 ships though.