I am still having problems myself with the galaxy map and it's inability to be a useful navigation tool. I am not sure what they were thinking at Hello Games when they decided not to bother putting a text tag on at least the stars that are close to where your current system is targeted. I do not believe they left out something like that by intent unless they were either lazy or just wanted to grief their player base. <--- the last part is mostly a bad joke, much like their idea of navigation.

If you hate your home world and want to get a fresh start it is not hard to roll the dice and get a new planet as many times till you get the one you like. I now have a starter system with three friendly planets, Sentinels are (mild) Air quality is good as is water (only have one planet with water) no harsh weather and flora and fona are both abundant on two of the worlds.

And there is loads of giant nuggets of useful resources, finding Emeril nuggets big as skyscrappers.

Best of luck to you

the galaxy map is seriously lacking

Maps in general would be a welcome addition. I too returned to my starting planet, I even found my crash site again! I'm running around just exploring but haven't moved my ship. I'd like to be able to place a perma-waypoint to the site so I can find my way back whenever the base building hits. I can see leaving again and never finding my way back...

I`m not really complaining, but the Galaxy map could be simpler. It kind of reminds me of Final Fantasy 10 which has the most weird, needless complex stats upgrade system because, no reason.

KISS- Keep it simple, stupid. If you want to make a map, make a map, not a puzzle.

Maps -

These planets are generated. Trillions of them.
The solar systems/galaxies are likewise generated.
Even the stuff on each of the planets is generated.

And, by that I mean that not only the "physical" stuff is generated in high numbers, but so are the names of everything in NMS.

So, when it comes to maps: how would you start to map all of this? Even if you would break it down to galaxies, NMS might have been out in 2???.

What they could have done - they could have used a searchable coordinate system. So if you would like to see "0815" or "E605" again, you could have dialed in that number to go there.
They did not, end of story.

Then have a map generator as well when entering a system. The information is being populated, it could also apply to a 2D map as well.

A 2D map?
One that you could print out on paper?

You would run out of sheets, ink, even energy in no time.

What they could have done, is, Not have a map where you are bouncing around willy nilly, with no rhyme or reason. Having random keystrokes sending you off to who knows where. Having boxes with letters in them at the bottom so tiny that you can't make them out even with a magnifying glass. Having a map that is essentially a slot machine, or a monkey throwing darts. They could have done that, but I have come to believe that the Devs, deep down inside, want to grief the players.

I agree, the map is barely workable.
What also irks me is that yes, you can discover and rename suff, that's great but there is no way (at least not that I know of) to get other to this place without random chance.

Imagine the following:
- You have a workable map with proper coordinates
- Player X finds a great looking planet and spends hours exploring it, naming the planet all all it's species, etc.
- Player X then goes online and tells his friends/the community "I found this planet and it looks great, here are the coordinates", adds a few screenshot and dares players to go find it/get to it.
- Those other player might be 200.000 light years away but instead of going to the centre of the universe (or if they've already been there), their new goal can be to find the planet of their friend Player X by going toward these coordinates.
- Player X can also monitor how many people and who was on "his planet"

As of now, I don't see a good way of doing something like that but given the whole discovery and naming mechanism, I think it should be a core feature. I never thought I'd suggest a social media component of all things bu there it is, NMS could really benefit from one I think.

No 2D as in 2D...a flat map. In game, not printed. Totally possible, look at Elder Scrolls games.

It would come down to a map of the galaxy/system you are actually in.
Because these galaxies at the most have something under 10 planets/moons - would not be very helpful.