Sometimes groups like to meander. Sometimes it is the journey, not the ending, that is what turns out to have been important. In sandbox-style adventures, I find that a lot of the time. Things you think are just side-quests or small stop overs turn into more meaningful experiences because something catches the spirit of the players and they fully engage with a detour while the main plot lies languishing.

My main player group consists almost entirely of highly educated people (80+%). In that mix, we have an astrophys/teaching quad degree sort who has amazing talents at everything (courtesy of some ADD oddly enough - closest to JoT I've seen), a computer tech with kung fu teaching as a hobby, a full time RCN reservist officer (now a CO of a reserve unit, just returned from the Gulf, who also served on East and West Canadian Coasts, in NZ, and in Afghanistan) after becoming a Mechanical Engineer and working on mass transit around the world, an ex Canadian Army (NCO) reservist turned full time RCAF Intelligence Officer (cyber, peacekeeping, space weather, image analyst training... all sorts of billets and some overseas in Africa), an electrical engineer with a background in biolmedical and construction/lighting and farming and who has a 2nd degree Black belt in Aikido and some training in Kung Fu and Escrima, an IT guy whose origins were in prestigious Canadian hotel kitchens after culinary school, and likely someone I'm forgetting. Oh yes, one who would have to be a high ranking military officer or noble (ego...) and who himself is a patent agent having come out of an electrical engineering backgorund.

From a gaming perspective: One likes fictional freebooting pirates, a few others are open to the idea, the military sorts want them shot. A few would consider crime, the others would want them arrested. One or two might play scientists or engineers, but they want to be in the action too. Some will only play ex-military. One likes merchants. One from the old days would be the noble or Imperial Guard or some such. No belters, no hunters, no law enforcement (though maybe under the right circumstances a LE or bounty hunter might fly), no bureaucrats, no barbarians, no farmers or colonists, no philosophers, many have a human-only bias in games (or Elves, but traveller lacks Elves), no wet navy (why? you have space navy!), usually Marines or Imperial Navy, no corporates, no doctors, no scientists usually despite the possibility of it (the pirate loving potential scientist also loves Scouts as the semi-respectable independent explorers and covert workers).

With all that, they like some mysteries and some merchantile, some combat, and some pursuit of bad guys. They aren't likely to go on a dilettante's tour across the vast swath of the Imperium. And their skills often include space, military, clandestine, but notably interaction skills focus on intimidation, interrogation, information gathering, etc vs diplomacy (other than the Merchant who is focused on profit making transactions). And most of the 'someone needs help' with (crime/alien in distress/moral quandry) would not be in their wheelhouse.

The large omnibus travel adventure DGP headlined was just... not their thing. They wanted to drive a ship around, see the universe, do a bit of good, and make a few credits.

The one exception was a campaign that was anchored by the Noble - it was during a massive advance from the Solomani into Glimmerdrift Reaches (before the Rebellion, our Solomani planted sleepers all over neutral space and in the Imperial areas formerly owned by the Solomani Confederation before the Sol Rim War). The Noble was an Imperial true believer who was the Count for a planet. Another player was a local (non-Imperial) Baron. Others included a Vargr Imperial Naval vet, several other Army/Marine vets, & a naval Intel vet.

This one involved preparation for an invasion and dealing with spies and 5th column activity. About 20% into the arc (after the HighPort was blown up), the Count's main advisor was so frustrated by the chaotic and authoritarian Count's strategies, he started covertly supporting anti-Imperial actions on the world while being the Security Chief for the Count. He basically screwed over the count time after time (including blaming other characters who were both killed at the Count's behest), and then the invasion arrived and he had to kill one of the remaining ones. Some of the players had unclear fates, some others died, the Security Chief survived and joined the Solomani. As GM, I sent piles of info towards the Count to hint at the disloyalty, as did other players, but he distrusted them and he discussed issues with the Security Chief who then 'took care of things'. I was amazed at how blind the Noble was and how well the Security Chief played the turncoat.

One master stroke of the turncoat: Known for liking some degree of respect, he and his bad guy team put together a pamphlet newspaper called 'The People's Petra". This became popular to regular exposes of failings by the Count and the local governments (ah, what access can buy you!). To take attention off the possibility of the Security Chief being implicated, he wrote several pieces sharply critical of his own competence, making him look a laughing-stock. The Count's player could not imagine the other player doing that to himself, so he assumed it was someone else or the GM. So that one series of articles bought the turncoat campaign long immunity from as much scrutiny as ought to have been played, given his key access to info and directions and plans of the Count.

In any case, my players are NOT about long, languid travels without a clear purpose and that focus almost exclusively in non-combat resolution (as the main DGP adventure did, character builds were not combat oriented at all). It's not that my guys just like to fight - the fight has to have a reason - but they prefer some amount of confrontation and physical conflict.