Its realistic, as opposed to Star Citizen which leans more on "rule of cool, not rule of real." Real life space is boring. 99% of all planets that arent big gas balls are just big ice rocks. Ships are big, slow, heavy objects that take time to maneuver. Elite has a simulated galactic economy, which can be directly influenced by just a single dedicated player. It contains fantasy political turf scuffles, colony expansion, and all sort of other stuff. You can be pretty much anything, a bounty hunter, a miner, a merchant, a taxi, they even added first person shooter parts with the Odyssey DLC (like what Star Citizen already had).

Personally I think what people think about Elite Dangerous is also why so many people complain about Starfield. I like Starfield. While not perfect, it does a good job of mostly "realistic" space portrayal, even if it does contain some fantasy elements. Problem is, people were disappointed with Starfield because they expected Star Wars Skyrim, but got Elite Dangerous Skyrim instead. They wanted even more fantasy where Starfield leaned more into realism. If you like Elite Dangerous, there is a pretty good chance you will like Starfield. But if you don't like Elite, you probably won't like Starfield.