For a start people get put off being told how to play. Which CCP does. So EVE is not a sandbox, it’s probably more like a kitty litter tray.
CCP wants everyone to ReCruiT a fRieNd, like that advert they have out now. Your average gang of young professional neighbours and friends who love a bit of light hearted fun, you know the normal EVE player type.
Then you all get together in gangs and gang up on other smaller gangs for hilarious adventures. When you get really carried away with the spreadsheeted risk management then obviously the biggest gangs are the most fun, and that’s when CCP approves your choice of sandbox playstyle. Until the tidi hits and the node goes down, but that’s just the price we have to pay for the fun of being told how to play in CCP’s sandbox.
Being able to create stuff is the whole point of sand, you can shape it. But methinks the CCP prefers to keep that fun for themselves. We get to play with the stuff they made in the sandbox, and we have to be in groups, because their cunning plan to grow the game’s profits, in a stumbling ham-fisted amateur newbie marketing way, but let’s ignore that because we all know that CCP means well.