That is very real-life-like then... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escalation_of_commitment is a very real issue in wars.
In reality the game is more an economics simulator where war is the instrument that engages with your numbers.
Stopped playing when the game became P2W, I miss it probably the same way a nicotine addict miss the cigarette.
I tried to describe what it's like to be so involved in a game and then not. This analogy is perfect!
What makes Eve interesting is that all star systems except for those in the very middle of the map are controllable by players, and actually provide value to those holding them. So that's why you have these gigantic, drawn out conflicts and large battles where player blocs with thousands of players each are fighting for territory.
There are some built-in 'NPC Corporations' that you start on, and default back to if you get kicked out of a Corp, but they're basically just placeholders.
The big alliances are empires that control many aspects of the game. The downside is that if you want to play casually and don’t like all the boot-licking and drama that comes with player corporations you miss out on a lot of the game.
Not if you include all of the ship setup calculations, POS and Capitals efficiency, etc.
Check out Astrox Imperium. It's been described as "Eve Offline". It's made by just one developer, but it's really impressive for that.
I've never played Eve myself, so I can't personally say how they compare, but I enjoyed the hell out of AI.
(PS: I have no association with AI. I'm just a very satisfied fan.)
I liked the stealth game as well. Work your way in a stealthy ship deep into Nullsec and do your thing - whether that thing is a bunny rabbit of a frigate designed to find and steal cookies and outwit the fox, or a stealth bomber that hides near the cookie jar to squash the unsuspecting. And both of these have to find a way to get back to civilization with the lootz.
Is it worth it? No. Is there a good alternative? No. EVE Online always had an element of spreadsheets to it. It was designed that way. The original game design was done inside excel.
Personally I find it fascinating that CCP didn’t build their own spreadsheet functionality into the game considering how many players used spreadsheets to calculate mining yield returns, industrial runs, research and BP copying. The only area of EVE where spreadsheets go out the window is war.
I have probably 20,000 hours in the game. I lived on EVE from 2003-2010 and then would log on every once in a while to get my space fix.
The one thing I will say about the game, it inspired me to try to create my own back in the day. It was too much work for me but I did manage to get a demo of flying around from Star system to star system using an EVE-Online like warp and scene management.
The artwork of EVE is fantastic. The space environments are A+. The actual gameplay though is a bit stale to todays gamers. It’s more a kin to old school rpg’s where you target something and let the auto attack do it’s thing.