What exactly was delivered? Physics based flight model? Procedually generated planets and cities? First person interactions with voice and face control? Large sandbox game environment based on comprehensive fictional world building?

What we are discussing has never been delivered before which might explain some of the perceived delays.

In terms of gameplay E:D didn't deliver. I ceased keeping track in mid-2017, but by then it was inferior to FFE.

What's FFE?

Whether or not you liked E:D, it's still a fully released game that felt polished, albeit shallow.

But that's besides the point. Parent poster was drawing equivalencies between the two games' release timings, and my point is those equivalencies aren't actually comparable.

I think it's Frontier: First Encounter, which is a 1995 game that's the precursor to E:D in the Elite series.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontier:_First_Encounters

I don't see how E:D is inferior to it, but YMMV.