What can't be fixed with patches is that the image of this game the developers sold to players was based on lies. There's a laundry list on reddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkgame/comments/kcve8s/promi...
However NMS is an open-world exploration game. I worry that with Cyberpunk 2077 being fairly linear / story based, they won't make the same investments that Hello Games did re: adding tons of new features.
Some of the "missing features" were eventually implemented, but MANY were not. Instead, they pivoted into implementing different things that were not part of that initial hype cycle, and implemented enough of them that they hoped people would forget about what the game was originally claimed to be.
And apparently it worked, because people always talk about how No Man's Sky got "fixed" without acknowledging that huge, major chunks of that initial promise were never in fact developed.
The space stations are now major hubs and the Atlas even more.
Part of the experience was to feel like you are out in the middle of nowhere. All alone. And it was like that up until the last few releases where they updated the player spawn locations.
Now it seems like when you jump in, you are likely going to end up meeting other players.