There are lots of things to do, but the actual mechanics are for doing them are shallow. The best example of this is the trading system; the way trading works is there are 7 economy types a star system can have, which determines which goods they produce (can buy in large quantities) and demand (can sell for a higher price than at normal systems). Thus the best way to make money from trading is to simply find a loop of systems which chain together the production -> demand goods. For instance, the economy types trading -> advanced materials -> scientific -> trading each produce the goods demanded by the next economy type in the chain.

So the system is fairly shallow, since what you end up doing is just jump from system to system and buy and sell everything.

Well there is piracy and smuggling now. The latter is easy way to make cash with minimal risk.

But if you want to get rich just find a few player farms and harvest. You will make millions in no time.