I wouldn't pay full price for this in it's current state, it's too grindy and empty. I feel like I got my money's worth from it, but not a title that will continue to entertain. For me, if the rate of improvements increase and systems get major overhauls then it might be worth a serious replay attempt. Absent that, one and done.

The environment is very pretty and picturesque.
Start a God Mode game and just drive around and climb things to look around, it's a very pretty, if video gamey, map in this current build (v22).

The (current) lack of lore means this is very much sandbox story building.
I liked some parts of that and also meant I ran out of things to do, other than find more ways to make money and add other goals after getting my primary locations secured.

Building is frustrating to infuriating.
Building pieces are missing or very difficult to create common design elements; most POI buildings aren't something that can be created which is sad because there are some fun ideas to play with. Roofing being especially bad, but most other non grid building is difficult to nearly impossible to feel rewarded at. The camera being fixed make is very difficult, you can do some movements to get a better idea, to position non-grid snapped things into a position. The grid snapped vertical adjustments are very large steps and hard to fine tune for something like following a gentle slope.

Time is poorly framed within the game's terms.
Most events related to expiration use real time instead of the in game passage of time; also those times aren't really realistic vs. the time scale within the game (a potato lasting a year and a half in a random box in the sun?). Except resource generation, which only works when your actively awake in the game, sleeping pauses those (and some of the power mechanics and maybe a few other systems that I didn't care to fully unpack).

There are lots (and lots and lots) of grindy interactions for high touch things.
If something could be tedious, it is... want to get some sticks from a bush, pick everyone of those up with a button press... want to put something into the furnace to smelt, it's a two button chord to move one item... want to drop all the ore into a chest that already has some, don't hit that auto sort button, you need to open a context menu and then select the move all option before it closes on you... Want to use the cooking crafting station, it opens in the non-food inventory you carry so it's multiple interactions just to get the proper context for the worktable... need some dirty water from a basin, same thing... there are tons of these that you just eventually ignore as you play more but they are really noticeable switching to a different game that doesn't hate you.

PVE isn't difficult currently.
Once you have a few upgrades and have played a bit there are a bunch of very simple things that render enemies lack luster. Base/Building defenses being a big part of the game makes this part of the empty feeling from it, night 10 or so this isn't really an issue even if you're walking into the game blind. Beyond the few jumpscares because of respawns I rarely was worried about raiding POIs, with and without cheese. I think ninja bears mauled me more than the vambies ever did.