space sim fan here, played xwing series, wing com series , freespace, freelancer. also been wanting true freedom and open-ended universe. i.e. able to fly anything from fighters to starships, able to walk inside ships, around planets in fps style. but so far, nothing comes close, not even privateer or freelancer.
the game sounds extremely ambitions, and it's in too early alpha to say anything. thou they claim to bypass a publisher, i think it's because of the difficulty in finding one willing to market a space sim.
look at xcom eu, reputable company, great game discounting its' flaws (compared to the original), yet sales figures are barely pushing pass 500k copies worldwide. triple A titles targets 10 mil copies in sales. a successful title is ~2-3 mil. 500k is a flop.
much as i like to see the return of flight sims with manuals thicker than a physics textbook (or games with outstanding gameplay and content), it's still a dying genre, and there's a reason why games are incredibly dumbed down nowadays.