I want to like this, but I hate the perpetual resource management. It's not about exploration, it's about refueling your launch thruster for the ten thousandth time.

I ran out of plutonium and can't find any. What makes this even worse is the recharge time on the scanner. What is it, like 60 seconds? Make it 3. I want to spam the scanner every 3 seconds. Also increase it's range by 10x what it is right now. I can't find anything.

I'm not going on an on-foot expidition to the far reaches of the land to find some friggin plutonium, just to run out again in 5 minutes. Maybe I'll try again in patch 1.3.

Maybe it needs the galactic equivalent of AAA. Activate the distress beacon to have a Gek come tow you to the nearest station, or sell you some basic resources.

Meanwhile, this, from the last update:
"Fixed a bug causing poor performace when in a vehicle near predator creatures"

Was reported specifically as a node-generation/path-finding problem about a week after launch.

In other words, Sony are up to their usual game - patching the game based on feedback from "focus groups" (read: the internet, where the loudest complaint is always addressed) - as they have since before launch. Where core mechanical functionality, consistency in game experience or gameflow in general goes by the wayside in favor of individual specific tweaking.

I am playing a pre foundation game.With mods this isn't bad. Only problem now is multitool is stuck at L24. Over 15 buy or free options hasn't changed in 3 systems. Ship and suit at L48. Pirates overpowered. Killed me once. Annoying.

Yes, Hello Games didn't want to make the exploration too easy. NMS is not a survival game, far from that, but it involves a major part of your time grinding ressources that will keep your systems working and give you fuel for your ship.
But you can change all that by loading a MOD and there are many of them which change the aspects of the game to fit someone's needs.
You can browse them here:

https://nomansskymods.com/

As an alternative, play in Creative mode.

With the Foundation Update (or whichever update changed blueprint acquisition) the game is even MORE or a grind. I don't think they'll change that or the scanner for the next update but who knows?

It would be cool if we could upgrade the scanner to reduce the recharge time. Also mining gold is very tedious, more-so than mining any other element. You only get 2 units of gold as opposed to 6 Emeril.

Here's hoping the next update brings some huge (good) changes.

Your attitude and feeling towards grinding will be very less tedius or frustrating when you combine it with all sort of exploring activities. A simplistic example would be:

BAD:
You suddenly need ressources and have to visit planets for that purpose only, and you spend a lot of time.

BETTER:
You're trying to get 100% of the Fauna exploration on a planet, but by doing so you *also* mine rare or valuable ressources on your way, just as you see them. You then stock it in your freighter (only a few clicks), so it will free the room in your suit and ship. If going in a cave for catching Albumen Perls or scanning for Fauna, also take this "Antrium", you surely need it later...
When in space returning to your freighter, don't just straightly fly to it, but shoot at these asteroids, it fills your cargo with important Iron and Thamium that you will use to refill your Exosuit shields later in the game. Buyin shields from NPC's will get you rid of having to grind for their ressources later, etc.

Some activities like space combat or fightings against sentinels on planets can yield important ressources FAST (Zink, Titanium, expensive goodies), so you also make credits fast, but it's not everyone's taste, I admit.