Remember the game is currently in early access, not everything is finished or final. I think Jesse Cox said "the game is thoroughly okay". It doesn't make huge mistakes, but doesn't feel ripe either. Take Master of Orion 2. Give it a phenomenal voicecast, fix all exploits, improve the earlygame, but also remove some features. Earlygame is excellent, lategame has some cool features which come a bit too late, but the midgame is kind of dull.
For example, in the early game, scouting, choosing where to engage what and which planet to colonize next is a huge interesting part, during endgame essentially uniting whole systems to one economical powerhouse to be able to produce the big guns is cool to, but the time in between is basically just stat-upgrades.
What is great is that the game never feels like you are in over your head. The "oh my god what is all this shit" moment doesn't happen. You feel pretty confident you know what you are doing most of the time.
I think the lightheatedness in controls, yet the incresing support of letting the player do meaningful choices is a recipie for greatness. I love the game. I would recommend it, yes.
If you have played Civ5 with all the addons and felt like tourism and religion made it just more complicated, but really didn't add much to the game, Moo might be the game for you. If you felt like Moo2 wasn't complex enough and you want more nuts and bolts to twist, then give this one a pass.
Though I haven't played Stellaris (I'm broke), as far as I could gather, Sellaris is more fiddly, Moo more streamlined.
One thing is for sure, it feels like a sequel to Moo2, not a random game with the IP attached to it.
