starbound is legit like, fundamentally flawed. gather resource A to get to planet B gather resource B to get to planet C to gather resource C to get to planet D is not fun. dungeons/prebuilt structures are only interesting the first time you see them. there are next to no meaningful NPC interactions. the difficulty scaling was always such so that your current gear was infuriatingly low TTK on a new planet and going back to old planets was such a cakewalk it didn't feel worth doing. the planet system precludes any permanent buildings outside your ship unless you want to do the stuffty tenant system.
if you want a good 2D exploration game with crafting and boss fights, play terraria.
loving finally someone who actually has the problems i have with it instead of "alot of people say its bad" or "its a terraria clone" or some stuff
this same stuff was suggested to edge of space and they added some of that. then the game died. it's a loving cycle of stuff when you add it to a game like terraria, it isnt supposed to be that way. anyone who likes it is loving sadistic, the same people who unironically play the first fallout game and civ 1.