Very charming game that seems like the perfect game for a cozy gamer. I thought I would love it since I adore Stardew Valley but for some reason this game just isn't for me. I understand it has to be cozy and as such there is quite literally no dangers, no need for rushing anything, no dying etc etc but I personally feel it takes 'cozy' so far it just becomes boring. A lot of time-gating involved too which limits how much you can do per session and again, maybe that is fine for cozy gamers. One inconsistency however was that resources needed for building everything is shared among the server, meaning that rare materials can be collected by one person and everyone else must wait for it to respawn. Granted, you will see people writing in chat for everyone to meet at a certain spot to farm the materials together but idk, I feel this goes against the initial 'cozy' or 'chill' aesthetic when you essentially need to compete for resources or hope that people on the server will be nice and inform everyone about the resources you need.

I can't rate it any higher than average but I also cannot rate it lower since it clearly has a community that enjoys it, and for casual, cozy gamers who don't have a lot of time to game, it might be perfect for them. Give it a try, it's free after all.

Stellaris is first and foremost a roleplaying game, before everything else. This is its strongest point imo and its great fun. The functionality of many aspects however are very very veryyyy boring and not interesting. Micromanagement of planets can be eased with automation but the management of wars is incredibly tiring. It is more fun to build up for the war, come up with lore reasons in your head for it etc etc than to actually fight them. I spend a lot of time designing ships, assembling fleets and armies, building defenses etc and it's probably my favourite part of the game, you can really be immersed in your empire. I can't comment on the late-game/crisis however since I never made it that far yet.