Stellaris is actually a really good game.

In just a few hours I set up a proper interstellar empire, colonised Alpha Centauri-B, and beat up a pack of space whales.

They looked more like jellyfish, honestly. But I panicked and shot them

To me Stellaris fell short. I was also bugged by the unrealistic and simplistic elements. It's an age of space exploration yet the starting technology is low. Some of that stuff is available to us soon and we are still a good wayfromspacecolonisation.