Niche - a genetics survival game

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I'm a bit split on if I should recommend the game or not. The graphics are charming, it has a unique gameplay loop, the premise is interesting and the price is very affordable. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy my first two(?) playthroughs. Above all else, however: I don't understand how anyone can find it overly challenging. It is *stupidly* easy to cheese the game by lingering on islands with abundant resources while not over-staying on challenging ones. A sense of completionism, or more specifically, the unlocking of new genes is the only incentive to stick around on unique islands for any time longer than it takes you to cross them, but most traits are not going to be useful in the long run and once you realize the magic sort of disappears. (Arguably, the optimal strategy while playing is to maintain a large population of "generalists", with minimal adaptations to any given island.) One pitfall new players can fall into is the assumption that you are supposed to entirely avoid inbreeding, when the game in fact incentivises it: Rogue males have horrible genetics, random encounters with new nichelings are unreliable AND much of the gameplay involves "curating" the genes of your nichelings, in short: the game expects you to mostly breed within your pack. But that being said, unless you do a self-imposed challenge run, entirely neglect resource gathering or don't breed it's VERY hard to lose. For as interesting of a game as it is conceptually, it is in my opinion a bit shallow in execution. Basically, one of those sandbox games which is fun for some time, but eventually gets pretty boring unless you add an element of personal roleplay and/or challenge. Worth buying if you find yourself intrigued, but go in with tempered expectations.