I’m glad you get that kind of enjoyment out of the game! I totally understand that feeling.
I think personally the thing that turns me off the most from the game is the linearity to progression. I love cozy survival games, and I’d love this one too, if only it didn’t copy the progression from other similar games. I’d rather it be truly open, with recipes being researched or found through the normal gameplay, instead of forcing me into a linear dungeon that feels so disconnected from the rest of the game. It’s the same problem I personally had with Raft and similar.
It’s why I love Astroneer, No Man’s Sky, and Starbound (if you ignore the story, which is entirely possible). Progression feels like such a natural part of the game, without any forced linear progression locks that funnel you into a single specific thing.
I do enjoy the moment to moment gameplay overall in Forever Skies. Me calling the survival aspects “chores” may come across as harsh but I absolutely love that stuff. I mean, I play old school runescape and countless survival and farm sim games, hehe. I agree that the interactivity of the game, the stockpiling of resources, the slow process of upgrading your ship, it all feels great and I love that part of the game the most. It really is just my (very personal) disdain for this sort of overarching progression that kinda gives the game a mediocre ranking in my book, combined with how unoriginal the game as a whole is aside from aesthetics and setting.
120 GB, saved you a click