How grindy is No Man’s Sky now if I just want to chill, customize my ship, base, and explore?

I’ve downloaded No Man’s Sky a few times before, mostly because I used to go through phases where I was completely obsessed with astrophysics, and honestly there probably isn’t a game that captures the feeling of the universe better than this one. The scale, the planets, and the whole idea of exploring an endless galaxy was exactly my kind of thing back then.

The thing is, that phase has kind of passed and lately I’m more in the mood for something chill. I’m looking for a game where I can just relax, explore a bit, maybe fly around with some cool or unusual ships without feeling like I have to min max everything. Recently the game caught my attention again, especially because I saw that now there are customizable spaceships and a lot more ship variety, which honestly sounds pretty awesome.

My main interest this time would probably be focusing on customizing my ship and building a nice base somewhere, then just exploring planets, discovering stuff, and maybe meeting other players and making some friends along the way.

So my question is basically this: how grindy is No Man’s Sky these days? I remember there being quite a lot of resource gathering and crafting, but I don’t remember exactly how intense it felt.

And also, how much story or narrative does the game actually have? I barely remember the main questline or how important it was compared to just exploring randomly. Is it something you can play mostly for the story and the atmosphere while chilling, kind of like Minecraft in space, or does it get pretty demanding and grind heavy if you want to progress? I’m mainly curious if it’s a good game to just relax with, explore the universe, customize ships and bases, and just enjoy the experience without too much pressure.