I totally get this perspective. My first foray into Factorio ended abruptly when I realized I'd made a total mess and was now signed up for a bunch of miserable refactoring.
Later, I realized that was the wrong approach - just go build a new factory somewhere. It's fun to take a more "hacky" approach to Factorio than I allow myself at work sometimes.
Of course, that was when the game really got its hooks into me, and I quit after a few dozen hours when I realized that I was scratching the same itch that I could use for side projects and other learning.
It's a balance, idk. I'll definitely play the new expansion at some point, but I do find myself feeling a bit strange when I'm spending time learning how to do something ultimately worthless when I could be using the same kind of mental energy to build something tangible or learn some new skill.