I'm not saying the game isn't good now. They've done a fantastic job getting it to where it is now and everyone should definitely give it a second chance. But Rockband (I'm a huge RB nerd btw, my friends and I definitely skipped a few too many school days to play it all day instead) and Minecraft gets poked fun of because they really are just digital Lego and hitting plastic together, but they are still among the best games ever. The closest equivalent I can think of for NMS was that the game had a very shallow game loop of collecting resources and upgrade your ship, which is what it was when it first launched.

I don't see much hate for NMS anymore, either people forgot it exists or they are praising how good it has become.