Memes

Everyone recalls, but they also recall Hello Games spending the next several years fixing the game and fleshing out to be closer to their original vision, which is what they were selling to people: their vision. They should have been selling the game, not the vision, but they took their fuckup on the chin and risked a lot. There was no gaurantee they would appease gamers and they essentially had no income except for continued sales of No Mans Sky.

Also NMS was Hello Games' first real big game ever, so you can give them a little slack for having no idea what they're doing.

Bethesda is a 30+ year old juggernaut who waits for modders to fix their games and has been re-releasing their last successful game for a full decade now.

Hello Games made NMS better because they felt bad. Bethesda made Skyrim better to re-release it and get more money.

Also, Hello Games is just 26 people and Bethesda is 420 people and owned by Microsoft.