It's not a single player game with a story, simply allowing you to run across other players from time to time would make more sense. Why is this hard to get? You say he states one thing, yet there are constant talks about multiplayer being patched in later.
I guarantee you that someone will make a PC mod for it that allows people to play together and it'll be a better game as a result, nobody is asking for deathmatch, just being able to see other players or link up with them is a must.
listen to what i'm saying. I'm not mad at anyone wishing for multiplayer. most of us would like that. BUt that comes at a cost.
multiplayer as we usually see it is either co-op or the everybody in the lobby together or a certain number of people together like gta online. if its not co-op. then that means get ready for the troll fest. Imagine you over here getting your discovery on. and some idiot just shoots up the spot. see its one thing to troll in gta. gta is a game made for trolling each other to death more or less. which is fine. this kind of game is not made with that in mind at all. that kind of trolling would drive people away. Then you would have factions of people jacking people like pirates even though there already are npc pirates out there. this could make the game feel impossible to play for a newb just joining the game a few months down the line.
basically as of now. this is for the most part troll-less game. which is almost impossible to say for any other online game where we are all in the same server(s). the devs want people to enjoy their experiences without worrying about the troll factor. They also want you to find out how hard it will be to survive on your own. you get multiple people together and its not hard at all to survive these planets or space. that automatically could take a difficult game into easy mode by allowing friends to play together.
lastly, whenever they do patch it in. which they will at some point. now i think it may end up being 2 player co-op. but who knows. they may open it up. once at least everyone has played for awhile and have their weapons, ships capable of dealing with any trolls out there.
and they have also enjoyed the game the way it was intended to be played for months before they patch it full multiplayer.
lastly, he wanted to be a youtube/twitch experience. see its one thing to show gameplay of the same game on the same map killing the same enemies. its another to have 300 youtube pages going and 400 twitch going all streaming NMS and nothing looks the same for all 700. Thats amazing and unheard of. You could literally spend all your time watching streams of everyone and you would actually see new stuff all the time. that right there is a method of multiplayer but doing so offline of the game to some degree. we are all sharing what we see with the world so to speak. .
and whenever they do implement it. i dont know how they will make it work with their atlast upload system. if two people are in the same place at the same time. and wants to name the same thing. who gets to name it? The way the procedural planets/ground, etc are created. it's linked to you the individual player. not to the server. meaning if you dig a deep hole. if you fly out and come back the hole is saved on your console/pc. and you will see that hole regenerated for you. but if you're in the same area with other people and they are doing things to the planet. how will any of you see what the other person is doing? you wont. because it wont register for you. your stuff is on your console/pc his stuff is on his. so thats something that may take time ot figure out.