A few more pieces of feedback:
Crash Bug: putting a gun in the crafting input slot crashed the game. I had the other input slot have a Super Gem (I was testing which items I could upgrade).
QoL: I noticed that mining rocks directly is slower and more tedious, compared to just digging the terrain block they're standing on. That said, each time I do it, the quest that counts how many rocks I've mined only cares if I directly mined the rock, disregarding any other indirect means of mining/destroying it.
QoL: I picked up some quests to hunt a number of a certain alien creature, but theres no information on where I'm supposed to go to find them.
Opinion: I feel the game is a still a grindfest much like its predecessor, but I do enjoy running around exploring planets and places with the clone person, while freely flying around with my small spaceship and kicking ass. I didn't want to grind anymore, so I used Cheat Engine to level up my ship and character to level 3000, as well as just giving myself tons of diamonds. For me, this made the game way more fun and respectful of my time.