The expected level of technology needed to traverse space and galaxies, build bases out of various resources, upgrade equipment, yet, none of my “spaceships ‘ can hover or fly backwards in any situation.

Ill never understand this.

This is not a rant, it’s more of an “I need advice because this…”.
I’m really enjoying exploring but every time I’m attacked by anything now, I just can’t be bothered, it’s not fun, I just stop the ship and immediately transfer everything out of the ship inventory into my suit so I don’t lose it and then wait for the inevitable.

It pains me to do this because I like games to be challenging, I don’t want things handed to me on a plate, I always set games to the hardest difficulty as I did with NMS except for perma death, but I’ve gradually had to reduce the combat difficulty setting and I’ve now got it set to one up from the easiest setting, yet I’m still being absolutely rinsed!
It’s bad enough that it feels like I must be doing something wrong or missing something obvious.

I’m not expecting to conquer the universe after just 12 hours of playing but so far I’m terrified to get into my ship and go anywhere near the clouds because every time I try to go anywhere, I immediately get scanned, of which there doesn’t seem to be any escape from as the scan only takes about 3 seconds. Then a bunch of ships instantly spawn on me that seem to be able to move and turn 10 times faster than I can, so I just end up spinning in circles with an alarm screaming “Shields are down, shields are down”.
And then as soon as my shields are dead I don’t have the materials to repair them, so I need to leave the planet to find the materials to repair the shields but I can’t even leave the atmosphere without being attacked.
I can’t outrun them, I can’t maneuver away from them, and my first encounter destroyed my shields so with no shield I can’t even take down 1 of them let alone 5, and the materials I need are apparently not on this planet.

I’m playing on PC but I use a controller as soon as I get in a ship, I discovered the auto-lock target system which definitely helps as the enemy ships seem to be able to move and turn 10 times faster than I can so I have no chance of doing it manually.
But I still seem to just end up spinning round in circles trying to catch them, and by the time I’ve managed to put a few shots on them, I’m already dead because I can’t repair my shields.

So I figure I must be doing something wrong or missing something.

• Are you supposed to stay on the spawn planet for a long time? Do you eventually discover something, like an upgrade that helps you get off the planet?
  There doesn’t seem to be any missions to do now, the game is telling me to go off planet and head to the stars but I can barely get out of the atmosphere.
• Maybe I’m using the auto-targeting system wrong, are you supposed to basically sit still in the ship and let the target system do its thing or should you continue to boost and try to maneuver manually as well, am I fighting against it if I’m also trying to maneuver?
• And in general, I know it might be difficult but without any major spoilers, any hints or clues to what might help me get through the beginning of the game so I can then progress on to learn and improve over time?