Well I'm confused because your quote has my name but another poster's content
But anyway, crafting, exploration and questing are the real meat & potatoes of the game. You don't need to do a TON of base building (if you don't want) but a lot of the quest rewards are money + materials for crafting to build better gear and vehicles.
Also the combat isn't terrible. Stop watching YT/Twitch streams of people still in the tutorial zone (Hagga Basin, first 3-4 hours). The weapons you craft in that part are junk and you'll build much better stuff after you leave. Abilities add quite a bit to combat as well and there are a lot more enemy types and combat mechanics through the game.
Example: Shielded enemies are annoying to engage with until you get shield break guns, buuut I have a grav well ability that basically holds them in place so I just drop that on them then go behind and stab in the back with my upgraded blade for a 1-hit kill.
It's not going to set the world on fire but it's certainly competent and engaging.