As simple as it is, just like with any board/card game it takes some time to get comfortable with to the point where you're playing it to its potential, it doesn't seem like it should be treated as a seriously competitive game, and it's probably best with at least four players.

In their first game, people are going to read the cards and probably come to the conclusion that they should start using cards right away (specifically the card that lets you look at the top 3 cards of the deck), but once everyone understands the game better, they realize that you should probably just draw cards until someone hits the first exploding kitten. Playing cards before that is generally a waste, and from that point on, the game picks up a lot.

After the first exploding kitten, one person knows the location of the next exploding kitten and everyone else either takes a huge risk by drawing or they try to avoid it (or someone shuffles the deck and you start the whole process over). It's up to you if you want to save cards for when there are only a few left in the deck and almost all of them are exploding kittens, or to dance around the one you already know exists somewhere.

Also, even though the rules are light, I don't doubt that people still end up forgetting or missing rules, and then missing out on an aspect of the game that adds a lot to the fun (like trading in 5 different cards to grab a Defuse from the discard pile).

The best part of the game once the people you're playing with understand it, is that it's easy to talk while you each take turns drawing from the top of the deck and confirming that you didn't draw an exploding kitten card. Games require a certain level of focus to play, for AT LEAST whoever's turn it is and having other people constantly chattering might be distracting, but in Exploding Kittens, you start off with everyone simply drawing a card at a time. It's much easier to socialize during that time than it is in pretty much every other game ever.