@Alan_Au I’d recommend the Gathering Storm DLC as it improves the game a fair bit. Remember V was not all that special until the two expansions.
I like this take, because it’s not a puzzle game of working out a solution, but assembling a puzzle. When the pieces fall together it’s pretty satisfying, and a lot of the DLC is about adding interesting new puzzle pieces to play with (resources, civs, improvements etc).
It’s not quite that bad. Try it, not having an army, and you’ll get invaded pretty quickly.