I played it before as a grinding game but you can easily play it as a casual game. There’s not really a defined playstyle for nms.

The missions from what I remember give you enough guidance on how to play. You essentially use your explorer tools (scanner, mining tool, combat weapons) to gather resources and explore the universe. Missions are there to guide you and give you things to do but you could just ignore most of them lol.

There’s aspects that are geared towards grinding like exotic ships, mine construction, sector economy, etc. but they don’t matter for casual players.