Neopets, Valenth & more come to mind as early 2000s crypto-less versions of this. You can make the exact same comments about the fun-ness of those games. And ye

Neopets, Valenth & more come to mind as early 2000s crypto-less versions of this. You can make the exact same comments about the fun-ness of those games. And yet people loved them. So yes, crypto is the focus and yes, gameplay is lacking (for those who seek different kinds of games). But those are separate issues rather than related. In other words, CryptoKitties innovation was never going to be gameplay, because it is explicitly a clone of pet collecting games of yore with the spin being different underlying infrastructure & payments technology.