The vast majority of players who were still playing (and maybe still are!) SimCity 4 were more focused on the city painter aspect.

And part of that is unless the simulation can be super super accurate you’ll eventually find a way to if not, get infinite money at least make money never a problem and then you just left with the city painter

Or it’s basically a completely different type of game like Dwarf Fortress, or Factorio, or whatever that Soviet one is