@Chel Maybe it's different in more challenging scenarios, but in practice it's actually pretty slow and non-chaotic. Things move slowly, scenarios take a few hours to complete, and often you're just sorta waiting to have money to spend on something you want.
There's a lot here, but for the most part I can just build something and forget about it. At least if I don't need to reclaim the space it takes up for something else. :p