The story reason is that the early grav drives caused the magnetic field to start collapsing due to a flaw in their design with a 50yr countdown until full collapse.
Practically, it's basically so they don't have to make a realistic Earth.
Ha, I didn't even think of that. Makes total sense, then they can treat each planet like a single tiny city and the rest just empty space, because it's easier for them than to create planets that have been fully colonized and developed by humanity.
Starfield is such a deeply disappointing work. Like I can't even imagine playing Starfield when Cyberpunk 2077 is risen from the ashes as a brilliant work of art.
All the time I was playing Starfield I kept asking: "What the fuck were they doing for 7 years with $400 million dollars?!"
