I somewhat disagree, the galaxy feels like it’s 3 meters wide compared to the lore overload that is the universe before the gate shutdown and there are, like, 2 ships for each race.
I do love the more “personal” aspect of you walking around in a fuckoff huge ship during an intense battle, and… uh, half of the NPC models, but my single playthough’s “endgame” felt more of a grind than its beginning somehow (“endgame” in quotes because I kinda dropped it).