I've been playing this since Beta with an Oculus Rift DK2 and a HOTAS. I'm still playing it. Being at the arse end of the internets, I mostly play Solo.
I'm also using "Voice Attack" so I can tell my ship "Warp Drive Active" and it will start up the frame shift drive in local mode, and if I go "Jump Jump Jump" it tries to jump to another system. Also, "landing Gear" and "Ship Lights" are things...
I've done exploring, trading, missions, Bounty hunting; I even tried mining, but it didn't really compete with bounty hunting. I did some power play, but unable as I was to support the Empire or the Feds, the alliance guy Edward Mahon gives you a bonus to trade, which isn't something I'm doing these days. I got a lot of bounties in small out of the way places for blowing up enemies.
I've worked my way up the Ship size chart. One day I upgraded to the point where I didn't have enough to pay the insurance if I lost it, so I bought a cheap Sidewinder to go ratting in, and had a blast! so I've gone back to ships in the Eagle/Diamondback Scout, Cobra range for ratting. In the Beta I flew a corvette around, and it's just huge and ungainly and un-fun to me. I have got away from fights in 2% hull, but have yet to actually lose a ship except in Beta testing.
Now that Horizons is out, I'm going out into the sticks in an Asp Explorer with a moon buggy, and tearing around the landscape having a great time exploring geology.
Every time I look out of my cockpit at the system I'm in, I grin.
If you need a story, or a reason to get out of bed other than to enjoy the pleasure of flying, then maybe Elite isn't going to be your cup of tea.