I think it's the same progression treadmill a lot of games have. Subnautica did this really well too, and Stardew Valley. Doing something manually and then getting to automate something that used to be really tedious really engages my brain in just the right way. I also generally like world exploring, I liked the music, I liked the immersive 3D element of it, the sort of vague quirky story/premise. It's making me want to play it again to talk about it - thankfully got rid of my gaming PC.

I generally install cheats in these games to move them along faster so I can get bored with them ASAP and get back to regular life.