I got about 250 hours out of the game before I felt like I had seen everything I needed to.
The general idea is:
- explore and experience the different procedurally-generated environments
- accumulate resources
- accumulate ships
- build bases
- build resource extractors for income
- acquire and improve your freighter
It was a lot of fun for the time I put into it. There is a point where there's nothing new left to do, however. They've added these seasonal challenges, but all those do is require you to start a new character from the beginning and grind your way to a seasonal goal, with an account-persistent reward. I haven't played since they introduced communities, so I can't speak to that. It was definitely worth the purchase price.