I am almost constantly in love with the loop of 4x games. I've always liked viewing them as short term goals which add up to an eventual victory. Observe the current situation, formulate a long-term Plan, Break this into an immediate objective, and then React to the changes brought about by the environment and your opponents. Something about the way these games let the achievable short term build on itself in such a satisfying manner makes for an incredibly rewarding feedback loop.
For what its worth, this is almost identical to the approach that Arena Net took with Guild Wars 2, down to the future focus on world events. That particular case played out fairly well, IMO, and it included non-cosmetic options as well (extra character slots, more bags). Curious to see how this develops, but it feels like a smart decision on their part.
IanSavage's comments