Elite Dangerous

I use dual Virpil Constellation grips (HOSAS) which allow me to map every important control besides copy pasting and typing in the galaxy map search. You can get a similar experience with much less budget if you want to test the waters.

Elite Dangerous has excellent VR support as well (while in ship). I use a Quest 3, but I am excited for the potential to get an OLED headset in a few years because the high contrast will probably make a huge difference.

I also play on my Steam Deck. You can absolutely fully play the game without an issue on a gamepad, the menus are all designed to be optimized for it. However, as MAINLY a combat pilot, there are some relatively big disadvantages going from HOSAS to gamepad. The game is rather complex, so on gamepad you use a lot of mode switches, and some things that would ideally have a direct mapping are a bit less accessible.

For example, I may have Shield Cell Banks on my ship, which can recharge a portion of my shields. With M+KB or with my joysticks, I can map a button to do this. However, with a gamepad, you will quickly find that there are so many more important controls that you don't want to give up a button for it... So instead, you add the Shield Cell Banks to a firegroup, and you need to cycle through your firegroups to find the right one to activate them.

With practice this is all doable. I am certain there are some competitive PVP players out there that are better than me on their gamepad. But it certainly takes practice.

Re landing and exploration, they really go for a "realistic" sense of emptiness. There are some really cool sights to see, but they are so rare that you could play for hundreds of hours and never happen by anything particularly exciting. This means it's often pretty boring, but when you do find something and put your name on the discovery, it's pretty cool.

I think the key to enjoying exploration in general is to approach it with a chill attitude. If you are looking for something to do that is relaxing and calm, where you can put some music on while you complete all the exploration "mini games", it's a nice relaxing time. You will occasionally have an emergency to perk things up, but for the most part there's no particular challenge and it's just a really chill way to spend some time.

It's not like no man's sky, where every place you go is packed with stuff. It's polar opposite.