Unfortunately development has been paused for over two years now. But yes, outside of Arpia + some other total conversions for older EVs, this is really the only thing out there that directly scratches the EV itch.

The closest contenders IMO are StarSector, the X series, Free Space 2 with extensive modding. Then many games that are similar to those 3.

I have still yet to find a space game holistically more enjoyable than EVN though.

Hmm, paused by the main dev? Probably yeah, but community continues to develop it if you check the discord group and git commits. There's some model/sprite rework and the coalition campaign that they were working on the last I checked.