Played it once 5 years ago. It’s so unmemorable that I had to go back to my notes to remember any details at all, other than having played it. Said notes ended with “it’s ok, no need to play again”.
I’ll disagree with both the description of it as a deckbuilder and as a tableau builder. I thought it was mostly an auction game. And that’s a tough genre to succeed in.
As for why that podcaster raved about this perfectly average game, that’s pretty much how board games work. When a game clicks with a group just by random chance, there’s a feedback cycle where they’ll play it more, enjoy it more, play it more, etc. And they’ll come to think of it as an all-time classic, even though in the rest of the world it’s totally obscure. I’ve got a bunch of those myself.