The fact a major game studio, responsible for such legendary RPGs as Skyrim and Fallout 3/4, took ideas from No Man's Sky, should not be seen as a "copy" or "ripoff." On the contrary, it's a commendation and recognition of the huge achievement NMS had on the gaming industry.

I won't even go to the fact that no game is a strict clone of another, and that Starfield took a lot of inspiration from other famous games, both of its own IP (Elder Scrolls, Fallout), and of other third party games such as Mass Effect, Star Citizen, and many others. Even focusing on what it specifically took from No Man's Sky, it is good, not bad.

NMS was the first major game to do anything of its size and scope. I can think of small, and almost unknown indie games that delivered a mere part of what NMS did, such as Evochron's seamless planetary landings, or going even further back, the Noctis series. These games are not well known for a reason. Despite their great ideas and innovaction, they didn't become a major hit, didn't find that breakthrough formula to make a core game loop and appeal to a mass audience. No Man's Sky did. And it's precisely because of its success that you see major studios reuse some of its ideas.

Bad games don't get copied or emulated. They are forgotten, seen as a dead end. On the contrary, legendary games are analyzed, built upon, and their ideas carried on in completely different games. I remember when Terraria came out, everyone was complaining it's a "rip off Minecraft." Decades before that, when Duke Nukem 3D came out, people called it a "Doom Clone". Such arguments were baseless then, and they are baseless now.

Regardless of how much a success Starfield will become (and I wholeheartedly wish it to become a great game, and plan to play it if it lives up to the hype), it was No Man's Sky that enabled it to be what it is. No Man's Sky was the first successful game of its class, and this alone earns it a lifetime achievements in the most legendary hits of the gaming industry. This is something that will never be erased or belittled, no matter how great later games are. Just as we still remember the original Doom, or Minecraft, as the first massively successful, genre-defining games of their respective genres, we will remember No Man's Sky for being the pioneering visionary it has become.