For me this seems like the best mobile game for work-days I've seen so far, it doesn't take much time to assign the actions a few times a day and its comparatively deep enough to hold attention without being a clicker. It's like a bonsai tree for the mind, a sort of meditative time-waster befitting a PC gamer. I can go for a walk out of office, get a coffee and have something to fill in the blanks with. For what it is, I think its very good.
This is where I am at with it too. If you work at a computer all day you can make a lot of progress in five-minute bursts throughout the day, day after day, week after week, month after month.
Building up domains, dealing with diplomacy, working with allies, and watching the world evolve has continued to keep me interested. Who knows how long that will last.
I let it take up too much of my life for the first 2-3 months. Sucks, but at least I have two very developed domains that I can now inch towards automation at a much more languid pace. At least once a week I do have to sit down for a couple hours and get a domain squared away, train the new settlers I bring in, and update the rather lengthy text file where I write down all the projects I need to do.
It is definitely an intense and potentially time-consuming game. If you don't genuinely enjoy it then you will never stick with it long term. And if you do genuinely enjoy it, you still might not.
My big breakthrough occurred when I stepped away from the game for a few days and realized, oh, nothing bad happened, my progress slowed down a little bit, and I don't care.