I used to play EvE as well, earlier on, and it all eventually got so boring I couldn't continue.
Some of the game mechanics, like scanning with probes, are interesting, but once you figure them out it's all tedium. If you want to PvE in a nice ship, you need to be wary every time you undock. If you want to PvP, you need a source of isk to replace your ship and implants, since every time you go there's a significant chance that clone isn't coming back alive. There's so much effort involved in everything, and very little payoff other than the occasional shot of adrenaline or lootbox find. Which is exactly what they count on. Variable reinforcement, rather than consistent reinforcement.
I got a carrier, started thinking about supercaps, and gradually lost interest in the whole progression due to the logistical effort keeping such things. I suppose I could have tried getting involved in corporate or alliance politics, or I could have switched to trading. However, like the lootboxes, those human elements too are constrained by game dynamics to be predictably unpredictable, and not in very interesting ways. Few long-term real-life friendships come about due to in-game friendships, since almost everyone quits games within a few years. So, due to all of the above, I left.
The best part of the game was hanging out in occasionally good, fun voice chats, but you have to be in a well-organized corp or alliance that runs good ops. Unlike real military-style organizations, though, scheduling makes good ops very difficult. People's ships are in the wrong systems, most of the op is just getting organized, and then, as GP said, you might get ganked at the first nullsec gate you jump through. Oh well, time to rat or mine or trade more to finance another ship and clone, so you can organize another op, which will probably also not be that great other than some fun voice chat moments.
At the end of it all, the other people you're hanging out with in corporations and alliances are there either because they've gotten hooked on the game's adrenaline or lootbox reinforcement mechanisms, or because they have a Machiavellian desire to pull the strings of a corp or alliance, and you're cannon fodder or logistical support, there to be kept happy. Or they're there to figure out an angle to scam or gank you.
EvE is more fun to read about, or think about doing things in, than it is to play.
Non-persistent games, like any good RTS, are more fun because they're lower-stress, and because you can see that you're making progress solely because your skill is improving. In a MMORPG, you're progressing only partly because you're developing more skill at playing, and more because the game company rewards you, in skill or lootbox upgrades, for spending more time in game (or spending money buying isk which lets you buy pre-skilled characters and in-game stuff).