...I never understood how people went from
"this funny space tank, which I can drive around freely on entirely optional areas when I'm bored to shake things up a little and stare at awesome skyboxes & snipe enemies from 2,3km away, handles a bit funky"
to
"Wow, a random kinda mandatory slotmachine minigame is better than free roaming around on planets"
As much as I don't understand
"standing in an elevator sure isn't very eventful, but at least my squaddies talk to one another, it gives me a true sense of progression without yanking me out of the game flow, and it only takes exactly as long as loading the next area does"
to
"yay a loading screen."
Surely, it took longer. But isn't going to the airlock and actually setting foot on the giant space station YOURSELF the entire reason we love highly immersive scifi RPGs? Not everything that doesn't reward time investment materially is "tedious".
Just a few random thoughts on overcorrections and my hopes to returning to the roots a little.