I don't know anyone who launched their first rocket faster than most story-based games that you pay €60 for and get one or two dozen hours of content if you're lucky.
Factorio is half the price for more hours of entertainment, even if you never touch it again after your first rocket launch (assuming you do enjoy it until the first rocket launch and don't put it away before then).
A minority of players (like me) likes to continue expanding and optimizing after the first rocket launch, but indeed most people go play something else first and start another map later, perhaps with friends. On your second run, you'll build a much better factory. Not necessarily because you like optimizing so much, but now that you know the game you can do things much better and most people enjoy seeing that they really made progress in learning how to play a game.
Factorio is half the price for more hours of entertainment, even if you never touch it again after your first rocket launch (assuming you do enjoy it until the first rocket launch and don't put it away before then).
A minority of players (like me) likes to continue expanding and optimizing after the first rocket launch, but indeed most people go play something else first and start another map later, perhaps with friends. On your second run, you'll build a much better factory. Not necessarily because you like optimizing so much, but now that you know the game you can do things much better and most people enjoy seeing that they really made progress in learning how to play a game.