factorio is one of the best automation games ever, and also has just about any quality of life feature you could think to add to a game.
i'm in my first ever modded playthrough with space exploration and i'm blown away by the increase in complexity. the vanilla game is great but the mods are definitely worth trying if you want an exponential jump in complexity.
My latest game is with Krastorio, and I've been loving the added complexity, though I've heard it's lighter than some other mods. Definitely doing a Space Exploration run next I think.