I'm finding in the beginning that clearing the land is a completely different experience, as in space there is no land to clear. It's just space. So here, where there are things lurking everywhere, it really gives you something to do to start everything off. In GalCiv, I feel like I'm always pressing 'next turn' and here I feel that I'm doing something every turn - again, this is the beginning of the game.
Mid game in GalCiv I'm still just pressing next turn. I play boring settings, which is probably the problem... but when I'm in a war there's always something to do.
We'll see what happens here.