Can I offer you some Star Sector (https://fractalsoftworks.com) in these trying times? It's a top-down view with more real-time strategy and RPG to it than first person space sim, but the exploration component is there in spades and scavenging ships to add them to your fleet is pretty fun and satisfying. I've been playing it obsessively the last few weeks.
I didn't know about the secret exploration stuff in Freelancer, I never found wormholes or what have you. Might have to load it back up! Or the FOSS version "LibreLancer", thanks to all who commented so far for mentioning that 😊
There seems to be some disagreement over the term, but I have always liked the explanation that "true" Roguelikes are "like Rogue", in that they have randomly-generated maps, permadeath, and nothing saved between runs; meanwhile Roguelites feature a "meta-progression" system that allows the player some kind of persistent progress that carries over between runs, and maybe other QOL features.
I love the idea of these games, but I am terrible at them. I sat down with Dark Souls and played it until I got gud, but Caves and Tales and Dwarf Fortress all kick my ass. Even Dungeons of Dredmor, which I poured dozens of hours into and got pretty far in, would annihilate me before I got to the bottom floor. Any tips on how to not suck long enough to learn how to not suck?