I don’t know how long ago you tried, now the game is reaching near completion and there is a tutorial.

It is pretty hard to get into IMO, you need to get used to many concepts and sometimes weird menus and such, that is the problem of the game. I guess you can give a try to the tutorial now and see if it spikes your interest more, the game has changed a lot over the past years.

Do you know of Songs of Syx?

A bit like a large-scale rimworld, with a focus on managing a big population and world diplomacy/war.

A bit hard to get into, though.

Also, what about project zomboid? A bit far from your description I guess, but who knows.