Completely true.
I think what those other games allow for is some kind of meaningful freedom and creativity. NMS can talk a big game about exploration and 18 bajillion million planets, but that doesn't mean much when the gameplay loop feels like it's fundamentally hemming me into a rote set of chores that have to be done.
Like if I want to fart around and build some stupid looking castle in Minecraft, I can. If I want to build neat redstone contraptions instead, I can. If I want to ensure my health and waste all my time building some elaborate greenhouse, I can. If I want to set up a server with friends and establish factions or community builds, I can.
In No Man's Sky, I land on a planet, harvest the resources to move on, check a few POI, read some shitty dialogue/lore from some shitty unmoving NPC, get some crappy tech and leave for the next star system. There's nothing "free" about my experience except the freedom to go see that fairly uninteresting procedurally generated landmass/lifeform over the next hill.