I was attracted the 'High Guard' and 'Trillion Credit Squadron' versions, which in turn prompted me to buy the box set of LBB's. Otherwise I would have probably ignored it. I do like to move back and forth between individual character actions and the 'high level' game. I was primarily a wargamer and miniatures gamer, and still am. I liked the Merchant Prince and Mercenary books, and have a big stack of the LBB's and 'Best Of JTAS' little books. I like all the time saving tables and ideas from 'supplements'.
I liked that I could play solitaire, and play when I felt like it and could make the time, without having to coordinate games with a bunch of other people, which can be a whole campaign in itself, just for a night or two of play.
I can also adapt 'Squad Leader' and use it's counters and boards for mercenary actions and full blown company level simulations on 'low tech' worlds, etc.
I liked the MT rules also. COACC, the Rebellion sourcebook, the Referee's Companion, and then the TNE rules, and I liked Path Of Tears and World Tamers, even though the latter is maddeningly broken in some important places. I also like the GURPS Starports and Far Trader. I liked the little 'Glisten' book.
There's a lot to like about it, for those of us who don't have the time to develop the backgrounds and rules for ourselves. It's not the only Sci-fi game I liked; I also liked Space Opera, too, for a lot of reasons, like it's skill system, definitely better than the Traveller way of handling them, they were much more granular and 'logical' in their prerequisites ans broad selection, and different approaches to rolling up governments and worlds. I especially liked it's treatment of computer systems, which was far to superior to what Traveller was doing at the time.
A lot of it also appeared to be a copy of Traveller in many areas too, which made me wonder if they were violating coyrights, at the time.
Meh, enough of that ...
