Yeah I gotta disagree on the resource bit. It adds at least a single layer of depth and purpose to trade, and you just gotta hover your cursor over the resource for a split second to see what it does. Also, technically there's only six Strategic Resources. The rest have their own categories and spheres of effect. Each resource has three different bonuses they apply (owning, surplus, exporting), and condensing them down would make the game feel emptier.
In my opinion resources and trade are practically the only major mechanics that are pretty fleshed out at release. On a regular scale too, not the Scale of Paradox Interactive Digital Entertainment Release Standards.
Play as a Settled Tribe somewhere if you want more of a people manager. It's a bit much with a fuckton of senators and shit, but a small tribe only has a handful of characters you need to keep tabs on. There isn't a lot to do in the way of interaction, but I found myself having a lot of fun regardless - posted in the Imperator thread about it, even.
I also however do think that once again hype and hatetrains are biting into this release. It was hyped up by both Paradox and the public beyond what should have been, but I hadn't looked into Imperator until a week before release and after I'd seen some of the gameplay from youtube nerds. Shit I mean saying that now, watching a couple different people play would've shown people exactly what to expect. I went into Imperator without hype and knowing what gameplay looked like and that definitely affects the fact that I think it's a nice, fun, but very shallow game at release. I also haven't had any of the issues people have been harping about since release. Obviously the issues exist, but my personal experience has yet to be touched by them.
tl;dr opinions but I got 21 hours in the game since release but I was also entertained by the mess of Bladestorm and thought Mass Effect: Andromeda was a great new beginning for the ME universe, so I might also just have shitty tastes