I have to manually buy every single vehicle? Why are there so many steps to setting up something as simple as a bus line? What the fuck do railway semaphores even do, and why at no point does the tutorial explain when to use which type? Why don't my airports come with places to park my planes, I have to buy them manually? Oh god there's voltage and wattage and different voltage wires and how do I know when to use which and make sure everything has the right amount of power the tutorial never explained that-
On one hand, I want to get into this game, but on the other, it seems like I'm going to constantly have my economy crash and fail and have to start over because I forgot the one obscure step in dozens to set up even the most basic of industries.
Pro tip: start on the easy mode so you start with tons of money. Don't worry about losing millions starting out, just blame it on the inefficiencies of central planning ;) also don't use realistic mode unless you are ready to make everything more complicated and take much longer.
Then just focus on getting one industry up and running, and import everything else from the outside until you have one export chain established. I recommend starting with crude oil since there is not many steps. Once you feel ready you can build a refinery and go from there. Construction materials or food would be a good second step.
Build worker housing last because once they arrive you have to feed them and school them and everything. You can build near the pre-built villages to make things a little easier because those houses don't require as many utilities to be livable.
Also remember that the game isn't really a city builder, it's more of a management sim. Getting a small mining village established takes plenty of work, so don't jump in and try recreate Moscow complete with metro system and international airport if you don't know how things work yet. I honestly still can't figure out how to get rail road signals to work unless it's just one track lol
I like to see it as a factorio style game. You are essentially building and managing a massive system of raw resources and converting them into usable outputs, then using those outputs.
It IS a city builder, but from a completely resource-based angle. And I kind of love it for that. But yes it is extremely complex.
Tutorials that take you through the process of creating a bunch of scenarios would help. A small village based off of one resource as you said, and a bunch of others.