Way back when I first cracked one of the LBBs on the display rack, the thing that came across to me as I read the text was that the game was a suggested framework or set of tools to create your own setting, and it gave you elements of what was to become the OTU as a quick and dirty optional backdrop should you need it.
The whole thing read like a recipe off the back of a box of rice or cereal or something; i.e. "You can use this...you may want to use that...whatever you use to get across space, whatever you call it, you use the Jump Drive mechanic rules..." and so forth.
If I were to get back into it, and I'm not going to, I would like to see that kind of framework come back. Someone brought up Leviathan, and that's about as Generic proto-Traveller gaming next to Adventure Zero. The Imperium was not set in stone, you and the group were mapping your own subsector, you generated worlds as you blazed a trail for new trade routes, and the ship itself looked like something out of the Terran Trade Authority, or something that was out of some science fiction setting other than the game's then Proto-Setting.
As more LBBs were published and the game took on a kind of coherence for the official setting, it lost some of its generic sweetness. Suddenly you were in the outer-space version of Greyhawk as opposed to just interstellar space that could reference someplace called "The Imperium" should you need it.
The early generic kind of frame work, for me at least, really helped encourage people to get involved with it. When more and more concrete aspects to the OTU came about ... a lot of that magic was lost, and it's my opinion that that lost a lot of people because they possibly felt that they couldn't homebrew The Martian Chronicles, homebrew Star Trek, homebrew Space 1999, and so forth.
For the millionth time I do understand the game's intent a lot better now, I'm not really thrilled about gaming the scifi genre, but I still think you need to service the player base with rules and a background that are a little more grounded and open.
As I bought more supplements for other games, notably Car Wars and SFB, on a personal basis there was a kind of explorative element to those games, and addons that people published. Traveller had that feeling early on, but lost it more and more with each new LBB that shed more light on the Imperium. And then it got to the point where the Imperium itself was geographically surrounded by other states, and that sense of being able to explore "unexplored" space.
And I bring up the Terran Trade Authority, but there was more art than just the TTA books. There was a whole community of scifi and fantasy artists at that time that Traveller hooked into. So you could see some of the abstract book covers at the book store, and that might give you an idea to create a scenario or session for your group.
I appreciate the Imperium, I've had a good time reading about it, it's neighbors and everything else, but during some of my later years it almost became a chore of conjuring adventures or scenarios. Imagine you're in a D&D campaign, and suddenly TSR only publishes Greyhawk adventures or things set in Greyhawk, and you can't use anything else. That's how it felt when the Imperium was set in concrete. And I think ultimately that's why we left it.
With SFB, Car Wars, Ogre, ... Champions or any other game, you had options because the game was the framework. Even SFB, even though it had the Star Trek as a default setting, the original Star Trek setting was wide and open enough that you could game in it without feeling restricted.
I know I get verbose when I post on this game, but I think this is kind of a key issue. Like I've said I don't do the game anymore, and I've wondered why I had an almost love-hate relationship with it at times. If it wasn't the lack of a task system, then it was the no-armor mechanic for personal combat. If it wasn't that, then it was the restriction on starship design. If it wasn't that, then it was the openess of the game's setting giving yield to the OTU. And when MT came around the armor verse hit mechanic didn't make up for the fact that the game suddenly became all about background material, a massive civil war that I couldn't wrap my head around, the murder of a head of state that we hardly ever referenced during the LBB era, and on top of that, in spite of the Rebellion sourcebook, there were hardly any official adventures published.
It went from being an open ended game with a lot of suggestions, to something that required lots of errata and addendum, and was predominantly about the OTU. That's my observation, and it feels pretty good to get that monkey off my back. I hope I haven't offended anyone here, but those are my thoughts. I really struggled with why I wasn't able to get inspired to write for the system like I wanted to when Hunter offered the opportunity, and at the same time still wanted to add to it.
Anyway, there you go.