I've been revisiting anno 2205, infamously the ugly duckling of the Anno series of RTS games. I don't mind so much the fact that it's different, lacks customisation and random map generation - I'm bothered because the game is so slow to progress through on challenge settings, and it feels like a game designed just to artificially waste your time; in other anno games, you can always pull tricks to dig yourself out of economic crisis - selling off assets and surplus goods, completing quests for other parties, or taking loans. 2205 is very very confined in terms of what you can do to financially recover in the early game and forces you into a lot of military events.
Saw a video recently making an argument about how Minecraft is designed with automation in mind, not in a good way, as in it expects you to make an automatic farm for too many resources, which makes exploration redundant.
The person who made the video made a modpack to revamp the game, instead I'm going to recommend another game i like, and hope you'll like too, as it respects your time more, even though progression is slow.
Vintage Story, a hardcore survival, it makes you take more time when progressing, but everything is more meaningful and has more intent.
As an example, you can make things out of clay, not by simply putting it in a crafting grid, but by molding a few voxels at a time, so you're most likely to use it to pass the time, if there is need to wait for something to cook/smelt. Same goes to smithing, and cooking, it makes doing chores more fun, you don't have to hurry to complete the game, just progress a few steps at a time, this makes exploration a core part of the game, and mandatory.
It's made with love, and i think that too is very important.
I absolutely love Vintage Story, but I dunno if it's the best suggestion for someone who doesn't like games that can feel like a life simulator. If watching pies rise isn't your thing, you're really gonna hate when you look away for a few seconds and come back to burnt pie. XD
I didn't have that take away from the above comment, so that's fair enough, i just thought the way it slows you down feels better than how other games do it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I haven't played Minecraft, but the Minecraft vs Vintage Story videos I've seen made it clear I picked the right one for me. I laugh when I die and I love how much work it takes to put a ceramic tile roof on your house.