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Give us your answer due...
It would make much more sense to have no music in the game for now than it does to have annoying music playing that you can't stop.
The issue is apparently the background sounds and music are part of the same audio stream within the game. They would have to reprogram the way music is handled in-game in order to separate them and allow music to be disabled.
1. I have spent decades buying CDs off of eBay. I have an enormous MP3 collection, which I'm quite proud of. I recently spent ~10 hours with an MP3 tag editor updating the naming conventions on my 4,863 song collection. When I'm playing games, I want to enjoy my music collectoin along with it. My tastes are my tastes, and they simply don't include the genre of music incorporated into this game. Playing Subnautica also includes having to listen to music I don't like, or turning the sound off so I can hear my music (which is counter-intuitive if they're trying to increase my game immersion). I am a "Music Enthusiast" and there's millions of us out there that might be wanting to play your game but would be turned off by this issue.
2. My wife and I have our computers set up side-by-side in the front room, connected to 50 inch TVs. Everyone in the family loves this set up. Often, the kids will be watching Clone Wars Animated or My Little Pony or something, while I'm playing a game. When that happens, I turn off my music so the kids and I can enjoy cartoons, but I leave the game sounds on so I can still play the game unhindered. Having music on top of other music on top of lightsabers is too much. Other times, if nobody else is home, I enjoy watching documentaries on the second TV while gaming, which is an activity that does not include music.
3. I enjoy Subnautica and I'm glad I purchased it. However, had I discovered that I couldn't turn the music off beforehand, I would not have spent the money. I would have said "I'm not playing anything if I can't listen to my music while playing it" and I simply would have purchased something else. Again, I'm glad I did, but I would not have, had I known. There are people that simply won't try the game if they discover this before buying it.
4. A music slider and / or a music mute check box is, by definition, a feature. It's also one that everyone expects, because every game ever made has it. Seeing a game that has music that you can't turn off is VERY UNUSUAL. The exceptions here are something like Crypt of the Necrodancer or Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero, for obvious reasons. This game simply does not fall into the category of "games which require the built-in music to play it". I could see a game reviewer like PC Gamer et al knocking a few review points off of the game for this, which would hurt your metascore.
As an alternative, I would suggest putting on the options screen, next to the volume sliders and mute checboxes, something like this: "This game features DYNAMIC MUSIC which is tied to your current location. Please enjoy with the music enabled." Personally, I would find this enticing and would at least give it a shot, but I would appreciate the ability to turn it off and play whatever I wanted instead, if I chose.
As you can see, this is a pretty important issue for me, and I expect that I'm not the only person out there that would agree with these points. I think it's important for the devs to consider this while it's still in Early Access. I have a hard time believing that they've hard-coded their game in such a way that they can't turn the music off. If they have, I stand by my previous statement that I think that's an error and a poor design decision.
Much respect to the devs for this excellent game! This is my two cents on this issue.
And yes, it needs FIXING. I don't give a damn about the 'well it's a game design feature' blah blah blah attitude, because on this issue the devs have GOT IT WRONG.
Not to take away from the rest of your post, because I understand your issues, this is completely wrong. In the early era of games, especially for arcade machines and consoles, turning off the music was a rare feature, and even many games on computer systems not solely designed for games haven't had a feature to mute solely music (without all the other sound).
This type of thing is still not completely uncommon/eradicated; for instance, many handheld games do not have an option to turn off music and only have sound effects.
Mind you, I agree with your sentiment and too would like an option to turn off the in-game music (as much as I enjoy listening to it, it starts getting repetitive at some point), I just disagree with the "every game ever made allows you turn off music except for Subnautica" statement which is plain false. :)