Actually, his most basic, underlying thesis is that it's impossible to determine what their priorities are. To the author, the game is incoherent. If you cleave to that view, then it's impossible to understand why the developers changed what they changed.

His example of Dark Souls is a perfect one. He acknowledges that, while the game isn't his thing, he can at least intellectually grok why Dark Souls is a good game, and how it has been optimized and refined for the specific play style they aimed at.

The author claims the same can't be said for No Man's Sky.

So, no, it's not that it's a different set of priorities. It's that it appears to be an incomprehensible set of priorities. And that's a real problem, if you believe in the thesis (which, I assume, will be explored in subsequent installments).

"Actually, his most basic, underlying thesis is that it's impossible to determine what their priorities are" - zzalpha (someone who read the article)