If I had to guess based on my similar experience, it's because the real meat of what gets built - the buildings and population - happens without direct interact

If I had to guess based on my similar experience, it's because the real meat of what gets built - the buildings and population - happens without direct interaction. Factorio and Minecraft both let you take direct control over every buildable thing, but city sims make you just lay down simplified infrastructure and...wait. At least that's how it is for me. Especially in a game like Cities:Skylines where getting more stuff to do is gated behind population counts, which you can only increase by sitting around.