I enjoyed the economic side of things once you worked out the jank (which was really bad at launch, stuff like AI nations being incapable of making steamships), but eventually it kind of felt like you'd solved it and were just playing an idle game from then on. Some other aspects (politics and wars) were hugely reliant on RNG so I wasn't as big a fan of those parts. In spite of those criticisms I generally had a pretty good time.

Seconding the suggestion to pirate it first to see if you like it.