I've found that it engages the same parts of my brain as writing software, and I only have a limited amount of time each day that I'm able to focus on either activity. So to some degree it is self-balancing, but it's also possible to lose 4-6 hours while playing it if you get in the zone.

This is why I could never get into it nor Zachtronics games. Just feels like work.

Honestly I think Zachtronics games are much better for this because they have discrete levels. You have many places you can just stop, and each level has a pretty solid definition of "optimal" (for whichever metric you're optimizing for), so you can actually be done with it.

Factorio presents a significantly more complex problem at a vastly increased scale.

It depends on your personality type I guess. Personally, while I did get addicted to it I never actually enjoyed playing it and was all too eager to put it away forever as soon as I launched my first damned rocket [0].

Players who get way into Factorio see that as the beginning of the game, some 40hrs after starting in my case. If the idea of playing essentially a 40hr tutorial doesn't make you want to run away then Factorio might be for you.

I prefer Dwarf Fortress if I want to make large swaths of time disappear, personally... though I haven't played that in many years come to think of it. I guess as I approach 40 and my awareness of my own mortality increases I care less for making time disappear.

[0] I think pushing robotics much earlier in the tech tree may have made it more enjoyable for me, and there are mods for that, but I never paly a modded game until I've experienced it as it was intended and by that point I didn't want to pay more of that damned exercise in complexity-fetishism.

I haven't bought it yet for this exact reason.

This is a valid concern. I'm glad that when I launched a rocket, and upgrades became n->∞ that I unwound from the game.

Probably not weeks, but a week for certain.