Probably my favorite type of game, I've played dozens of them but I'm always looking for something good I might have missed. My personal favorite for the past few years has definitely been Farthest Frontier but theres been a ton of good ones. And if anyone else is looking for recommendations let me what you like and I probably know something that fits.
Timberborn seemed like such a cool concept but the game itself felt really shallow to me. But it's been almost a year since I last checked it out so there's probably a fair amount more to it now.
Definitely give it another try, IMO the last few updates have focused on giving it more depth and differentiating the factions.