Recent reviews by Gumsk

Should you buy it? Yes, particularly if it's on sale. It is often on 50% or 60% off.
What do you do? It's a sandbox game with a ton of different things to do. Do what you enjoy and ignore the rest. There's very little you have to do.
Is it hard? No. The first 20 or 30 minutes are the hardest, but there are difficulty sliders to customize it however you want. The devs and most of the community seem to approach the game as "play however you enjoy, as long as you don't screw around with other players." Really, it could stand to be a little harder, but you can find mods for that.

My Experience
I pre-ordered this game and, honestly, kind of enjoyed it at launch, despite the bugs and not matching the hype. I didn't play long, though, and put it down for a few years. I came back later and was shocked at how much it had changed, and I've been hooked ever since. I got into modding the game and love to see it continue to grow over time. Now, I come back for every update and play the expeditions as a fresh approach to the game every few months. I don't play it every week or anything, but it's a good time throughout the year, for the long haul.

Finally, if you want to support the devs, I can highly recommend The Last Campfire. They also made Joe Danger 1 and 2, which I haven't yet played. Or you can gift a copy of NMS to a friend.

Not quite as addictive as some of the older iterations, but once you find all the workshop addons, you can really tailor the game to your own playstyle.