Well, so far (20hrs so far) I've seen other systems found by other players. So that passive network experience is similar to Journey but minus seeing actual players. Good to see other sci-fi references ingame as well.
There seems to be a lot of hate for it on youtube, I really think being vague made people fill in gaps and those assumptions went wildfire. Also, the demo scene they kept using was manufactured by their creative team (only 15 people btw) so they kept using that because I guess it's easier to digest. Watching other streamers saying how can animals live in such a toxic place, well, they're born there and know no difference
I'm guessing Hello Games didn't want to say that there is no multiplayer at all because they didn't want to lose potential funding/sales. So they left it slightly vague.
I guess being also an indi game dev they really don't have the polished marketing or public relation staff on their team to advise on what to say, and saying vague things kept people in suspense. I think that people held Hello Games as some kind of "this is how we can make a game right the first time perfectly to what everybody wants". Well, the reality is that a game in itself is made up of parts and stages, much like, oh, i'm going to drag that game in.. Star Citizen. The difference between SS & NMS is that NMS is one whole game unleashed at once. I can't see in the future with patches the universe being fixed but additional stories being sold as part of the main game within the NMS universe. With SS it's heres a expansion, and here's an expansion, and we've removed an expansion and put it in another expansion and as for the whole game, well.. SOON™.