To be fair, while paradox games like Stellaris or the crusader kings games you mentioned, certainly have a lot of replayability (I don't really care much for CK myself but have over 1000 hours on both Stellaris and EU4), they're not great examples for where cheaper games by smaller companies offer more than expensive ones from bigger ones. Partly because paradox is fairly sizable and well known these days, but mostly because those games are quite expensive, just split into numerous expansions that come out over time. One can opt out of getting them, sure, but they're where a lot of the different options that bring the replayability come from.

[–] NeuronautML@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 minutes ago

I'm right there with you. I absolutely hate Paradox's DLC policy and I'm guessing they lose a ton of paying clients the moment they hit the store page and get a 200-500€ price tag for the full experience, or even over 100€ for just the best hits for a really old game. I know they have mouths to feed, but i really don't like the way they do it and how they abuse their position of niche games nobody else makes. Nevertheless, even though you may choose not to purchase their expansions, you still have extremely healthy modding communities to carry you over.

Still, i wasn't coming so much from the angle that it's a smaller company providing better value than larger companies, rather showing to the OP that there are non multiplayer games that easily can provide over 500 hours of entertainment.