I played it for some 50 h or so until I run out of time to play games and also interest. The type of sci-fi Starfield is about should be right my alley and hence I was expecting a lot from the game. Seeing the reception, it did surprise me positively, and I enjoyed my time with it more than expected. As you say, the game has so much potential most of which it manages to miss in one way or other. I think that makes most people frustrated with the game and leads to the negative reviews. Compared to any other AAA game published since TW3 I have tried, Starfield feels dated. One often wonders what did they think while making a feature in the game as it could have been made so much better with no more effort. Somehow the game and the universe feels bland and soulless. Despite a recent war, one does not feel the tension among the factions. The largest cities do not feel like cities, rather settlements although the lore seems to indicate that there are millions of people in them. As an example: the space port in the main city has three landing pads one of which is for the player's ship and two others empty most of the time. When comparing it to CP2077, the main city feels like an empty afterthought. Even Mass Effect 1 had more lively feeling main "city" (Citadel). Perhaps the biggest disappointment to me was that they did not make the game more scientifically grounded. Yet, the game has its gorgeous moments and I am happy it exists. One of my favorite things was to land on those moons looking around and waiting for the sunrise (starrise?). The celestial object physics model is quite impressive in the game and should get more attention. Waiting for a few years before trying it can be a smart choice.