I have some faith in Hello Games. I think being skeptical is absolutely the right call, but from what I can tell Sean seems like a decent guy that just got way too excited and started promising the world to people.
The worst part of the NMS incident is that other companies have started doing the same thing deliberately.
Generally I’m a boomer shooter kinda guy, but I have recently been into more “chill in the world and ‘work’ on stuff” games like Satisfactory, Stardew Valley, Slime Rancher, Minecraft, etc
But like you I also occasionally pick up a shorter, story driven game. Fire watch is one of the best games I have ever played.
Slime rancher and Subnautica for sure.