I am interested in this game kind of, but curious to know how much actual content it has, because if all you are doing is trying to get home... use the stars to find your position and set a course home.

The base game mechanics are always the same. You get in the new system and you try to gather as much recources as you can.

BUT there is great diversity how this wil play out, in every system and in every playthrought. I played about 10 hours and i had almost no encounter and quest twice. The composition of your crew and the rng will compose constantly new situations for you to solve. Also the quests and crisis are much more diverse than for example in FTL. Many quests have multiple stages, that can be altered in differend playthroughs.

It is basicaly a mixture from Firefly and Star Trek Voyager. The atmosphere and the challenges you face are really interesting and diverse.

But keep in mind that you need patience, because the control of your starship is quite difficult and the rng can throw challenges at you, that can be at time a bit unfair. So you must be ready to start many new runs till you are successful.

Im on my 3rd major attempt and still have not met one of the major races and keep finding new things that often just give rise to more questions.
You learn from experience and although you know the direction to Sol the route you take there is down to you and the choices you make.

The irony is: you can actually see Earth on the Galaxy Map (scroll with right MB, zoom/unzoom with wheel). But if you think you can reach it as you say by just plotting a course then sorry, you are plain wrong...

About the game:
TLJH is a mix of space adventure, strategy and tactics which you constantly need to apply in deciding what to do next. What you can do mainly depends on your ship status, your crew health, your status with aliens and other things. There is a trading system in place, you need to earn credits to buy important ressouces for your ship, and unlike many space games, your credits will not always increase and be on the high side, just another challenge for you to do things right.

Do not expect to succeed once you launch the game for the first time, the game is damn difficult (even in Story Mode suited for beginners) and more often than not you will get stranded in space, lose all of your crew or get sunk during a combat. Do not get frustrated, but start a new game that will be different when you use a new 'Seed', the seed totally changes the galaxy. You will have learned from your past experience and you can improve and - slowly but surely - get closer to Earth next time. The highlight in this game IMO is the nice intereaction with the aliens. Do not interact at random because every dialogue will have impact on your mission.

I find this game way too difficult, but that's exactly what makes it captivating, if you are not frustrated by the many failures it should get you come back soon. Very high re-playability.