I have 200+ hours in the original Planetbase and 100% achievements, so I am pretty biased, but I love the relative simplicity (by the standard of most city-builders) combined with the sci-fi themes and survival mechanics (albeit starting from the mid-game, the survival mechanics are not that important) of the original game.
I always wished there were more compelling late game expansions mechanics and buildings in the original. Planetbase 2 looks to be shaping up as the sequel we need 10 years after the releases of the original.
I think there is still a market for a “mid-core” type experience and honestly the core structure of Planetbase is very polished.
Even 10 years later, the game still has ~300 CCUs (so likely about 2K+ MAUs assuming an average session is 3-4 hours), a decent achievement for what is arguably a niche indie game:
https://steamdb.info/app/403190/charts/#3y
Oh yeah I’m sure there is still a market for it. I was talking about me personally.