I wouldn't say that it was a good investment, or even too much of an investment at all. A lot of it was procrastination, escapism, self-sabotage, etc. There were times when I could overlay a sort of canon to my character's activities that was pleasurable to think about. I spent a lot of time wanting the game to be good, but some glitch or design decision would always get in the way.

But I'd say one of the best experiences I had in the game was becoming self-reliant at the start of a new save. Struggling not to die evolves into having enough resources to survive indefinitely by manual resource harvesting, which evolves into setting up crude crafting pipelines, which then evolves into advanced harvesting and manufacturing, enabling easy interstellar travel and self-sufficient freighter bases. But that can only happen once per save. And it's only really satisfying on survival or permadeath. The other modes are essentially just a no-risk sandbox.