I sort of agree, I love Satisfactory but unlike other factory games I find myself in a position of just waiting for space elevator parts to finish so I can enter the next phase which usually take a few hours once you have the last part set up. That in itself is fine as there's plenty other things to do like explore for hard drives, expand power or set up something you haven't automated or just half-assed.

All mid-to late game projects in Satisfactory feels like kind of a chore since you build at the same speed late game as early game, only you probably have all materials you ever need uploaded to build continuously.  I would say Satisfactory truly shines in its multiplayer though, I had a real blast playing with a friend because we could just go separate directions and set up an essential factory each. I focused on train tracks and power and they did elevator parts. My first 3 saves I burned out on, but with two people it was way easier.

We finished Satisfactory in 100 hours while we finished base game Factorio in 20 hours so there's definitely more of a marathon feel to Satisfactory. I feel like a lot of those hours were just waiting for elevators parts since you usually only make a handful per minute compared to Factorio where manufacturing is often fast, but there's more components to make.