As an Early Access, it has a LOT of jank; but it's unlike anything else that has ever existed. It really is a no-compromises, persistent, open, seamless sci-fi universe. It gets massive updates every 3 months, and those updates have been getting gradually bigger and more meaningful over the last 2 years. We've seen huge amounts of progress, so the developers are actually delivering. And regardless of how you feel about their business model as an outsider, it's successfully ensuring that progress can continue in perpetuity, which is exactly what all of us regular players want.

I skipped the original Kickstarter because even the smaller scope of that pitch seemed impossible on the budget they were asking. Then I watched the project for years as it seemed like it was falling apart. I didn't actually buy in until they showed off planet tech, and it was obvious that (1) they had finally gotten their development problems fixed and (2) their business model was capable of funding the project indefinitely (no matter how long it took to realize the vision). As of now, I have well over 1,000 hours in the game... probably more than anything else I've ever played.

It is easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled.

No, but I won't be in that situation anyways.

Followed by the call from the bank "What the fuck is Cloud Imperium?" before your accountant files it under "bitcoin" because they stopped understanding and zoned out after "digital content"

Those extra assets are also one of the reasons why some games take like 500Gb of memory storage to install.

Yep, it is the same in Forza Horizon, you can buy cars through DLC, and they basically just change the 0 to a 1.

The cars still exist in the world...

That's the weird thing about this, nobody would ever NEED to own all the vehicles at once... not even the biggest Org. The game just doesn't work like that.

You'd need all the vehicles in Star Citizen like you'd need all the vehicles on earth. You just buy or rent what you need when you need it.