Consider trying Rimworld--it's a more approachable (and in turn, shallower, though not as shallow as you'd expect) riff on the "story generator"/ant-farm approach to game design.
RimWorld randomizes difficulty through the game. So when things go crazy the response tends to be Angst against rngesus.
In dwarf fortress when problems arise the answer is almost always that it could have been prevented and or dealt with in many many ways (some that the developer never considered).
Nobody I know plays the default ones regularly except for Randy, and Randy won't hit you hard enough to break most skilled players.