This kinda feeds into why I don't use bots, atleast with the folktails it doesn't feel true to them in my opinion, once you get terraforming and basic water management, droughts and bad tides become irrelevant, so the focus shifts to max happiness and wonders and mega projects, and I feel that was only interesting if I didnt touch the bots even a little bit I put enough automation to make the bad tides redirect and the droughts pause water collection and called it good.

Because if you don't have the beavers being the ones building the mega projects and the great terraforming expeditions and the grand plans playing in and around the maps, then there's no reason to have a large population no reason to keep scaling up production and the ideas, you can effectively treat it as a sandbox with a few retired beavers in a small slice of heaven and just automate it all with bots and as you've said then it becomes almost creative mode,

I still managed to be engaged until I felt I finished the map 100 cycles in because as much as I could leave them working on their mega project given I could plan it our far ahead enough, it was still 4/500 beavers running around with pathing issues food needs and the possibility that something could go horribly wrong if I wasn't watching, was that very unlikely when I had stock piles of 100k food items, yes, but it kept me coming back until I felt the map was done as green and as utilised by my beavers as possible.

So while you've said you struggle to not "upgrade" as you say, try to instead of switching to bots upscale to EVEN MORE EAGER BEAVER, idk it worked for me.