Some of Starfield’s planets are meant to be empty by design — but that’s not boring. “When the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there. They certainly weren’t bored." The intention of Starfield’s exploration is to evoke a feeling of smallness in players and make you feel overwhelmed.
May as well boot up SpaceEngine then.
Genuine question (I haven’t played it): If it’s a co-op PvE game, what reason could there be for not having the option of client-side hosting? You wouldn’t need to have a queue and have lower requirements for server maintenance. You could play on official servers or community servers.