Lol! I totally read your comment as a joke on the "In my day..." I didn't take offense either way, but the way you started the sentence seemed like you were being facetious.
As for the rest of your post; I agree. There are games that don't seem particularly fun to watch, but are an absolute joy to play. There are also games that aren't fun to watch unless you know the mechanics of the game. I always mention this one, but I used to think Demon's Souls looked boring as fuck. Until I played the game, fell in love with the mechanics, and then obsessively began watching videos of other people playing it and Dark Souls, because once I understood the mechanics of the game, watching how other people execute those mechanics was fascinating to me.
With No Man's Sky, the game isn't designed around being an Uncharted-esque showpiece. It's impressive in a very different way, but some people were expecting something more "up tempo," I guess. A game that looks flashy and impressive in trailers, when I think the real joy of No Man's Sky is going to be literally just walking around and exploring an alien landscape. I fucking love my epic, set piece games with snarky characters and dramatic showdowns, but I can absolutely get lost in a game like No Man's Sky, where the adventure is what you make it. Where there's no guiding hand saying, "You should clap here." I can 100% see why people would say the game looks boring or uninteresting to them. I can also 100% see why people would be crazy excited for this game as well. I'm in that latter camp. I've watched just about every video on this game I could find, and I was never bored once. Others don't feel that way, and that's cool, but it's seriously time for those folks to realize the game isn't for them and to move on. There's a LOT of stuff out there, and some of it may actually have what they're looking for. No Man's Sky doesn't have everything I ever want in a game, but what it does have is enough for me to be incredibly excited about it. The naysayers don't have to understand it because my excitement for the game is only relevant to me, just like their disinterest is only relevant to them.