I’m sorry, but I don’t buy it. Your feelings about Star Citizen are the same as the pimply, hyperbolic, immature bunch of “game journalists” that produced this band-wagoning clickbait over stylized nonsense? Inside Gaming? Bollocks. The only thing that the bunch of desperately trying hard to be hipster and edgy lot are inside is their own arseholes.
I don’t know if the demeaning “what could more attractive to a gamer willing to spend wads of cash to live another life between shifts at <-insert fast food restaurant here->” is the sort of thing they say regularly, but it, and a lot more, comes across as grossly insulting trash.
I don’t know Hammer - I honestly can’t believe you’d be swayed in your thinking by such one-sided, juvenile reporting, and not take the time to investigate and interrogate things for yourself beyond the trashy headlines. To give things a fair and open-minded shake for yourself. I fully support being sceptical and questioning and expressing criticism when it’s warranted and fair. But to base such a strong opinion on such flimsy one-sided evidence without balance just doesn’t sound like something you’d do. At least not in my mind. Of course, I could be a really kak judge of character, but I don’t think so.
I’m honestly sitting here wondering if you’re really just trolling @Sweepslag (and me now!) for the lols, or if you genuinely have made your mind up about this all already.
Don’t get me wrong - I genuinely don’t care whether you actually end up liking the game or not. I also honestly don’t care whether you or anyone else feels that I’m a gullible old fool with no impulse control and zero ability to manage my money who has been suckered and scammed by a dream-peddling snake-oil salesman. I have my reasons for buying into the “jpeg hype” and I’m comfortable with the way things are going. Would I like it sooner? Sure, of course I would. Would I like it to become Anthemesque? Oh fuck no!
So, all of this long-winded ramble to ask you to please consider doing two things:
First, follow through on your commitment during the podcast to Sweepslag to at least give things a try during this currently running (but ending on Thursday!) Free Fly event. Just spend an hour or two in the game. And if you can, do it when Sweepslag is able to join you online - it’s a game in an alpha state. There’s no hand holding tutorial there, so having an experienced guide with you for the first time definitely helps. It’ll be janky, it’ll be laggy and and it’ll be buggy as heck, but at least you’ll be able to say you tried it. And if you still can’t see the potential, then so be it.
Second, expand your viewing of the Star Citizen news and information beyond tossers wearing cowboy bandannas unironically, especially if they have faces just begging to be PKed! Here’s some suggestions:
Digital Foundry - Specialise in reporting on game technology and hardware. This one has a focus on some of the tech stuff CIG are working on, but does address some of your concers too:
Obsidian Ant - Noted open-world and space game enthusiast, know for his Elite: Dangerous videos:
BigFryTV - A channel known for being brutally honest in their coverage of games:
Mosrphologis - an architect who focuses on Space Engineers and other building related games and content. He is a $1000 backer:
AltChar - Finally, a small channel that met with actual Star Citizen backers to try figure out if they’re all just a bunch of delusional suckers:
(Strongly recommend at least the first two if you can, the rest if you have time.)
Do those two things, and I’ll make a one-time deal with you. As soon as you’ve made your account, PM the email address you’ve used to me and I will gift you a Star Citizen and Squadron 42 Starter Pack.
That will give you an Aurora ship and immediate full access to the Star Citizen persistent universe (with no extra cost or subscription charges), and a copy of Squadron 42 - the 40+ hour single player, standalone campaign game they’re making at the same time as Star Citizen - when it releases.
No terms, no conditions - straight up gift package from me to you. If you hate it, you can use the account to make hilarious gifs of game bugs and screenshots for loltastic memes, without any cost. (Or just ignore it forever.) If it turns out that you don’t hate it all that much, you can join me for regular space shenanigans on one of the multicrew ships that CIG milked / suckered / manipulated me into buying. 
