What was so intolerable about it, and why did no one sue?
There was an investigation for False Advertising.
They were cleared. Still, you can't say what they did was not shady as fuck.
There were lawsuits as well.
https://techraptor.net/content/kekraptor-lawsuit-filed-no-mans-sky-says-game-isnt-revolutionary-enough
The false advertisement claims were investigated by UK's ASA. They investigated 10 separate claims and failed to uphold a single one of them. The fact that some of those claims were very black and white makes me doubt the legitimacy of this "investigation". They literally said certain features would be in the game and admitted days after release that those features weren't actually in the game. Just take a look around the modern judicial and investigatory systems. Saying that the ASA cleared them doesn't, by any means, clear them of wrong doing.
What was so intolerable? I don't want to regurgitate the list of reasons why the NMS release was completely unacceptable. That list has been compiled over and over across the internet. They have also been vetted, proven, and exact quotes clipped and placed side by side so there is no doubt that features were promised but not delivered.
The bottom line is, there is a certain degree of embellishment that is involved with every single sales pitch. I understand that. What NMS did though, went much further than that. It wasn't "in the spirit of", "essentially", or "interpreted" to be anything. They said things were in the game for the purpose of selling the game even though those things were not actually in the game. Simply because they got away with scamming their customers does not mean that it wasn't a scam.
Like I said, it's not about the $60. I could care less. What I care about is the "free pass" the video game industry gets when they make promises. I will never be ok with that. Volkswagen makes false claims about their diesel and they have to pay out 4.3 billion. Hello games makes tons of false claims about their game and the decision is "it was essentially the same".
This can't just be passed on by. How can you not be worried about the game developers that are sitting in their board rooms right now saying "Hello Games lied and got away with it. So why should we tell the truth?" You don't think they've talked about it at EA yet, or any number of developers that have proven they are shady? If we as the consumers don't stand our ground, they will keep pushing until we do. How bad do you want it to get before we stop it?