Alas, this is actually an ok game at its core. Despite being scaled back, I think they did a good job squeezing Animal Crossing's look and feel into a mobile game. There's much less to do, but I think that's fine in something you might check for a few minutes a day. On paper, it's a match made in heaven, as Animal Crossing and mobile games both want you to fall into a routine and play it for a long time. The critical difference, to me, is in Pocket Camp's timed events. Some events are seasonal/annual, which the console games do as well, but other events are limited, and may or may not return. Animal Crossing is a relaxing routine, yes, but if you feel like you can't leave it without "missing out", it's not so relaxing anymore.

Of course, this comes down to the FOMO tolerance of the individual player. If you have no issue with temporary game elements passing you by, you may enjoy the routine. At the time of me playing it, Pocket Camp was surprisingly lax in its monetization efforts, and nothing was behind a paywall that you couldn't get otherwise. In lieu of games with a price tag, I'd cautiously say you could do much worse for a free-to-play.