Yea, with a good tileset the graphics really aren't that bad. Where I lose steam is trying to use the interface to tell it to do what I want it to do, and not wanting to spend that long doing it. Dwarf Therapist helped a lot (been a while since I tried) but in general my ability to concisely express orders and my computer's ability to keep the sim running smoothly tended to bog down. And the motivation/direction tended to peter out around then, too.
But definitely a game so awesome it is more phenomenon than game.