Probably not permanently abandoned, but the very robust and rather fun gameplay mechanics do not really make up for the very plain and unengaging story, in the caliber of a later BioWare game. I've had a bad track record of leaving CRPGs with story much more interesting than this one unfinished, but those ones usually weigh around 5 GBs and this one weighing 140+ GBs doesn't really make me feel comfortable just leaving it in my SSD, just to play on and off.
Loading saves takes half a lifetime, but I was also occasionally save-scumming, so I give it a pass. But what I don't give a pass is how if you want to have a particular character be present for what can be a defining moment for them, you have to go to camp, get a load screen, talk to the companion you want to dismiss, find the one you want to come along with you, go back to the game, get another load screen, and in some areas, when you go back into the main area, your newly acquired companion will inexplicably be loaded way out of the other group's path, sometimes even loading into a restricted area, which has you having to load to a previous save, go to another area and potentially having to do everything all over again.

After finding out that one of the "Narrative Designers" for this game is a guy i find obnoxious on twitter, it made me think more about the biggest failure of this game's plot. (not saying it was his fault or that he had any hand in this, though)

I really didn't like how in a story about the loss of agency and freedom at the claws of capitalism, labor exploitation and the dystopic future, the choice to join the unionization efforts is made for you. You don't get to talk it out with Lou, show interest and a willingness in fighting for better working conditions and a dignified living, she simply adds you to the Union Newsletter on like, your second day on the job, which apart from being a gross violation of operational security, ironically takes away your agency and any sort of weight this represents. I get that this is because you're a blank slate silent protagonist, and the only choices you get to make is your savegame name and the kind of pain grunt sounds you make, but it just makes this sort of plot all the more alienating.
I find that the games that have you doing meaningful acts, for better and for worse, are more powerful if you have the capacity to do the opposite. I find that, for example, becoming a communist in Disco Elysium is made more meaningful because you can just as easily be a neolib, a fascist or simply wallow in your own insanity, but you carved your way into class consciousness and infighting, and enjoy the kind of character you made.
This is not the case in Hardspace.
Another thing that really irked me was how at the end, after having fought the corporation through Industrial Action and the Union reps having gotten to the bargaining table, instead of fighting in any way for safer working conditions for the shipbreakers (take care of the active fusion reactors on the ships before processing, make sure the rooms are not pressurized, no fuel or coolant on board, etc.) they simply demand that they be exempted from the ban on the human cloning scheme, which is being outlawed for "human rights violations". And YES, I get that this is because there's an endgame with you paying off your contract and flying away on your fixer upper ship that you need to work towards, but it's putting the gameplay before the plot, in a game that already has an endless mode. I really do consider that this plot is so bad it actively detracts from the experience, moreso than the unexplicably unskippable audio calls, in a relatively mindless gameplay loop kind of game.