NMS was lacking portals and the sandworm, both things that it has now.

Cyberpunk actually changed a lot: they tweaked the handling of cars and bikes several times, put in a dating system where you can invite romanceable NPCs to your apartment, they removed armor from clothing and remade all skill trees to be more active, put in shooting inside a car, actually made the police pursuit instead of just spawning on foot cops near you, now even Max-Tac drops from a flying vehicle at max wanted, and finally in the last update: the metro system.