I have to agree with the importance of flavor in space games. The best example for me is Civilization: Beyond Earth. I have easily over 1000 hours played between Civ 3, 4 and 5, so I was thrilled to play Beyond Earth, because I love Civ and I love space.
As of right now I've only played for 13 hours and I have no intention of playing any more. Because as it turns out, historical perspective, even in as limited a sense as the Civilization games, is essential. And without it I just didn't find Civ:BE enjoyable. It lacked a certain something. Killing an enemy unit with my "slightly more advanced sci-fi-y dude" that I got by meandering through their directionless tech web had none of the gravity of getting Iron Working before your enemies and finding enough iron to take out your their now outclassed spearmen.
Conversely, in EU4 I get a fierce joy from invading Italy and conquering Rome as the Ottomans. Or from unifying the HRE as Austria and allying with China to rule the world, if only because it's such a radical departure from history. I didn't do it because I needed more land, or money, or what have you, I did it because it gave me a sense of enjoyment to do things so differently from "how it really went". Without that context it's much harder to fabricate personal stories or motivations, and that destroys my desire to play any game.
Stellaris needs to give me a deeper reason to want to conquer yonder space empire. The value of their planets and money isn't enough, because once you get so big, it doesn't matter anymore.
