Yeah, I kinda share that sentiment but on the other hand I'm not blind to the fact that the building system is one of the most praised but also the most criticized parts of the game. It is often referred to as the major obstacle in the learning curve and there being a bunch of blueprints people can start from still doesn't seem to be enough to counter that.
So as much as I would hate that, I would also get why they'd do it. It would give them a much bigger audience.
Thats unfair critic though imo
The games building system itself really isnt that hard, once you know the basic hotkeys, with their communication being imo the one major flaw in this games approach to teaching new players, it becomes very intuitive, but like every creative thing it has a very high skill ceiling.
Lets be straight here, making a habitat or functioning zoo really isnt that hard, the thing that keeps most people from progressing their skill is simply taking the time to learn the mindset of decorating and building, not the controls or anything like that and creativity cannot be forced by a tutorial. Either people stick around with the game till they understand how to build or they dont, if anything id honestly fault the games lacking management as it should be catching players who havent yet reached that point or just arnt interested in the pretty zoo building but the actual zoo management.
Its honestly a bit like minecraft creative mode.
Its objectivly easy, you cannot die, got every block, can do everything, its perfect.
....but what then?
Minecraft survival offers other incentives besides buildings to keep a player hooked with the game even if they dont like building (yet) while also encouraging it.
Everybody builds their house and base and with time you will naturally get better at it as you get more used to it, but it doesnt feel as tedious because inbetween building your out there farming, exploring, fighting, caving or whatever your currently want to do.
Minecraft survival has a gameplay loop, planet zoo doesnt. And thats why over time most people swap to sandbox, because the shallow management turns from fun to tedious real fast, but at that point building on its own is fun enough to carry the game. Thats also why even when i do not plan to drop sandbox anytime soon im still advocating for better management gameplay, because even if i wouldnt use it it would prolong the time that management keeps players around or maybe even at some point make me interested in returning to it instead of playing in creative mode.
If minecraft manages to make farming stone and wood for 2 hours to continue working on my house fun and relaxing as a break between higher brainpower building sessions then i dont see why planet zoo cant manage to add some basic management like resources, staff management, staff optimisation, more complex power and water system with pipes and cables, etc to the game to actually captivate a player to do something besides building and not being burned out as quickly
