WinterSnowfall: Yet I don't think anyone is trolling here, we're actually debating a subject.
Some people are. You, for instance :-)
The kindergarten "I downvote all posts which disagree with me" is troll behaviour though.
WinterSnowfall: I'm still hoping they will address it to be honest. Maybe they were just testing the waters for some reason (maybe issues we are not privy to) and will now reconsider.
I hope so. I've been thinking while doing some housework, and I've come to the conclusion, that it's probably a bug.
It may work like DRM, but it's not really DRM, because DRM serves two main function:
1. Control - basically copy protection
2. Surveillance - check who plays what (online DRM only of course)
The NMS problem doesn't server either function. There is no copy protection at all, and a one-time requirement to go online (per new game) is no surveillance.
Also DRM is supposed to be hard to circumvent, which is clearly not the case - the info is stored offline in human readable format.
So why isn't it fixed?
The bug is probably very low priority for HG - it's in no way game-breaking, users came up with solutions themselves.
At the same time from what I gathered on other forums the game has serious issues for quite a few players with botched savegames (stuff stuck inside planets, missions not working), and HG usually go out of their way to help those people. They even offer you send in your save game if you're stuck and they fix it and send it back.
In my experience as a dev low prio bugs are only fixed when there's really time, sometimes never.
That's just me speculating of course.
What GOG should do anyhow, if HG doesn't fix this soon:
Create a support page for NMS like "Can't get the void egg", with some text like "It's a know problem, we're waiting for a patch from HG" and meanwhile describe how to "fix" the save game. And of course keep this page up to date.