Guess I need to restore the focus on the problem I personally have with the game: the official win condition of reaching the system edge is so close, that you don't need to make proper bases on other planets to achieve it (all you need is local science packs and turrets), and even a Nauvis base ...

it's fun for 50, 100, 200 hours and then it's time to play something else.
My point is that you can extend the playtime for that kind of players [relatively] easy and cheap by having a stage where you need to produce massive volumes of resources once you've unlocked the tech.

Sure, you can ...

Well, I feel like Minecraft actually shows that a game can benefit from a good well designed end goal (which Minecraft lacks and which causes retention problems) - many people quit Minecraft after a few hours because "I don't know what to do". To translate it to game design language: "the game fails ...

I thought of creating my own post-game mod - I envision something like building a huge radio telescope/antenna constellation around the solar system to seek contact with your home world, and the only recipes to unlock is the antenna recipe and a few components for assembling the antennas. We ...

The concept of motivation in a video game is very nuanced, as strictly speaking you don't need to do anything in the game, including playing the game in the first place.

Generally speaking, people have an intrinsic desire to play the game, but it requires an extrinsic nudge to validate a goal to ...

the base, that lives the most is the one on the planet you land on first after nauvis
I agree that this will likely be the case if you're playing for the first or second time. You're still interested in learning how your current planet works and will put on pause any issues on Nauvis.

However, if ...

A huge problem is that neither new planetary buildings nor Quality get their time to shine outside of the planetary science setups if your goal is to just beat the game, which I'd assume would be most people's goal.

Similar to how the Base Factorio ends before you have the time to use Beacons, the ...

I like most of the Quality system as is and appreciate its challenges
Maybe the issue that causes people to complain is more valid than I thought in my previous comment.

The problem is that if you don't already know how to handle quality, it clogs-up your factory, and the ways to prevent that are ...

I like most of the Quality system as is and appreciate its challenges, but I support the idea of changing it from a random chance to a productivity-like bar.

Actually, I do see one problem: since you can't upcycle items until you visit Fulgora, a large chunk of your playthrough has either no ...

Before we explore the premise, let's consider development limitations
As getting to the Shattered Planet is something most players will never achieve (and that's by design), it make sense that the devs in this hypothetical would avoid making engine-changing mechanics just for the Shattered Planet ...