I can think of a handful of games that, despite being games that I’ve enjoyed, never really became part of a “genre”. Do you have any like this, and if so, which?
Are they games that you’d like to see another entrant to the genre to? Would you recommend the original game as one to keep playing?
I personally though ED was quite shallow. Deeper than e.g. No Man’s Sky but still very “fake”. The economy is just a bunch of RNG, nothing real. I recently got into X4: Foundations which is much better IMHO. It really simulates the entire economy and production chains. You can carry out supply chain attacks on your enemies. It’s like a cross between ED and Stellaris.