Yeah, X4 is probably the best out of all of the X-series games so far. But they've pretty much all been awesome that way. The series certainly has its own unique gaming style, for sure.
There aren't many games where you can legitimately play it as an arcade spaceship shooter, and just as legitimately play it as a 4X economics/war strategy game and never even leave the map screen for 50 hours at a time whilst conquering whole quadrants of the galaxy.
Or you can make a warband and pretty much go Mount and Blade (In SPAAAAAAAACE!). Likewise, going pure pacifist and just doing space-trucker stuff is also a perfectly legit playstyle too, as is turning it into a corporate management sim, etc, etc, etc...
Really fantastically simulated and open-ended series of games.
We've also got a fediverse community for X4 over on Kbin.social now too (although it's still young). It's over at https://Kbin.social/m/X4Foundations if you're interested.
astromecanik