I am still playing, and now that I have gotten the hang of things, I am finding it more enjoyable. The hunger/thirst mechanic is still a little annoying, but it is now relegated to more of a minor annoyance than a game-breaker.
Basically, the first thing I do before I ever start to explore/quest an area is move my camp nearby, stock up on food/water items, top myself off on everything, and then head into the area. Encumbrance is still a bit annoying, even with Pocketed armor and Carry food, but I have slowly been weening myself from the compulsion to pick up literally every little dongle and doohickie I find. I am limiting myself to more valuable/needed items for crafting.
I am finding that Adhesive and Plastic are 2 things I constantly need. Adhesive for any weapon or armor mods/repair, and Plastics for converting all the other resource materials into Bulk, which from what I can tell cuts the weight of the resources in half allowing me to carry or store more in stash.
Exploration is fun, as the world is VAST. I have played probably 30 hours or so and there is still 80% of the map and locations I haven't even been to yet.
Had my first couple of Nuke launch experiences. The target location was nowhere near me, thankfully, but hearing the launch warning and then the massive detonation/rumble audio from across the map was a really cool immersion experience.
I am definitely having the most fun when running around with my dad and brother playing co-op. Honestly, I think where 76 might have missed the mark with alot of Fallout/Elder Scrolls fans is going with the always online, all multiplayer route. I would have been plenty happy with simply adding co-op to a traditional single-player Fallout experience, full of NPC's and everything, so I can run around the immersive worlds Bethesda is known for with my family/friends. The always online, all multiplayer obviously brought alot of design/technical issues along with it that seem to be a net negative for the game overall, atleast relative to what fans were expecting/wanting.
There is definitely a pretty steep learning curve to the game, primarily around the survival and crafting mechanics, but once you get over that hump, I find it is an enjoyable experience overall. Looking forward to playing it some more over the Holiday weekend.