I guess to me if still _feels_ a bit like brute force. You just go over all the squares and all the rules in a loop, adding and eliminating possible digits. There don't seem to be any sticking points where it's not clear how to make progress.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdtWTg4LrqQ
It can be brute forced with enough patience, but the fun for me comes in developing intuition on where to look next. The hints of a sudoku have meaning: they lead to the completed grid. Finding the next step in the puzzle amounts to understanding some of its construction.