Monopoly is literally the antithesis of what makes board games fun. I vaguely recall a hilarious and accurate essay on this topic, comparing Monopoly to Settlers of Catan and highlighting the degree to which they are nearly
perfect polar opposites.
Catan is definitely fun, compared to Monopoly, but there are many games I’d much rather play than Catan (coming from someone that had to talk his wife into playing it a few days ago after about 5+ years of not playing it, due to the previous — and only — time we played it taking 3 hours over two days). I’ve played it with others, and on Switch, though.
My biggest gripe about Catan is it’s heavy reliance on luck.
Of course, that’s my subjective opinion.
Some of my recent favorites (in no particular order) that all rely quite a bit less on luck:
- Terraforming Mars
- Brass Birmingham
- Hansa Teutonica
- Kanban EV
- Pax Pamir
- Castles of Burgundy
- Scythe
- On Mars
Sorry, just geeking out a bit, since the subject came up.
While Catan is not a perfect game, it's a perfect beginners game: a bit of luck, but a bit of strategy, lots of player interaction, and not too long. At the same time, it also shows its age, in that there are newer games that are beginner friendly and eliminate some of Catan's shortcomings.
Your main point, however, is still often forgotten: the oars games have come a long way since 1935 and even 1997.
If anyone wants to learn more about this, there are excellent and very friendly communities at boardgamegeek.com and reddit.com/r/boardgames
For more beginner friendly + shorter games, though, I’d still recommend several over Catan:
- Carcassonne - Ticket to Ride - Splendor - 7 Wonders - Pandemic - Codenames - Azul