I've been playing Simutrans on and off for most of those of years, and while I agree the gameplay is challenging, the Achilles heel to drawing in new players is

I've been playing Simutrans on and off for most of those of years, and while I agree the gameplay is challenging, the Achilles heel to drawing in new players is really the UI. It's ugly and confusing as hell, requires tons of faffing around rearranging menus even for simple things until you memorize all the shortcuts, and is completely unforgiving: if you're building a railroad and click on the wrong tile at the other end, it'll do some crazy loop and bankrupt you instantly with no undo. (Yes, there's an undo function, but it rarely if ever works.) And then there's just plain stupid stuff like letting you built a tram network when no trams are available in that year/scenario.