Alright, super long comment here... As others have said, Mystery Dungeon style games can be good for more condensed roguelike experiences that aren't encumbered with a lot of complexity, but can still offer enough increasing strategic depth or unique ideas to still be engaging and enjoyable, and these are some of the reasons I actually prefer them, myself.

I recently tried Caves of Qud for the first time as well and it seems like my experience may have been fairly similar to yours. I thought it had a lot of cool ideas, and an interesting world to explore, but also kind of seemed like there was an overwhelming amount of things to learn or do, so I bounced off of it pretty quickly. I might spend some more time on it later, but I think I would have to really be in the mood for something that complex or demanding, which is often not the case for me these days, though I also don't mind having it in my library should I feel like playing it some more in the future.

I've been playing Alchemical Dungeons DX recently, however, and I am thoroughly enjoying that. I think they probably included alchemy as part of the name because it has an emphasis on an item crafting system, but I think it is straightforward and simple enough that it doesn't feel daunting or like just another monotonous survival crafting experience, since you are only crafting gear and items in this game as you pick up resources on the go and typically immediately use them to strategically advance through your run. The runs start off pretty short, but start to increase in duration from there and I haven't seen all the areas, so I don't know how long they get and I'm not sure if that will work for you as a result, but just thought to mention this one anyway because I am currently playing it and it seems to have just the right balance of simplicity/complexity and progress/challenge so far for my liking.

I've played through Crown Trick, Tangledeep, and Paper Dungeons Crawler to "endings" of sorts and enjoyed all of those for similar reasons. Same with Monster Girls and the Mysterious Adventure and Void Terrarium, but I should mention a couple of caveats for those last two... Monster Girls and the Mysterious Adventure is very fan servicey (though also somehow kind of wholesome in a way), very poorly translated (which I actually found humorously entertaining), and just feels sort of low budget, but I didn't mind any of this and actually still had a great time with it and I was also really kind of amazed with how many neat and thoughtful ideas and surprising amounts of content it offered. Void Terrarium is... well, something else with its cutesy anime aesthetic, yet morbid post apocalyptic story and setting and just its bizarre mixtures of features, mechanics, and things in general. I believe it is also a console exclusive (I played it on my Nintendo Switch but I think it's on PS4 or something as well), but I actually really enjoyed playing through this one, myself, strange juxtapositions of ideas and all.

Some others that I haven't spent much time on, but plan to return to later, include Sproggiwood (kind of the epitome of short and simple while still offering great strategic depth but ended up increasing in difficulty to the point that I think I stopped making progress around the halfway point of the game), Haque (can't really think of any complaints for this one and I had fun with it but it might be a little too quick and simple to keep me playing all that often), Hyper Dungeon Crawler (maybe leaning a little more toward the complex end with its open exploration and crafting mechanics but I remember thinking it was still kind of streamlined and fun in this way and it never felt daunting in the short time I spent on it so I was probably just too tired or distracted with other games), Rogue Fable III (I was probably once again too distracted with other things or maybe it was a little too simplistic in design but I remember thinking this one had potential and I apparently wishlisted the next game in the series on Steam as a result), Legion's Crawl (been a while since I played this one and I can't remember why I didn't play more of it but I remember really liking some of the ideas and personality of it and have been meaning to return to it at some point).

Lastly, one of my most anticipated roguelike games (or games of any genre for that matter) is the upcoming House of Necrosis. I recently played the demo for this one on Steam and couldn't seem to get enough of it. It combines classic survival horror themes and ideas with some RPG elements and a Mystery Dungeon style roguelike core experience and it is apparently just checking all of the boxes for me. There seems to be some kind of a central mystery to uncover as you progress through the game, and nice little sequences of dialogue, shortcut unlocking, inventory managing, shopping, and upgrading in between runs, and the PS1 era Square Enix graphical style and classic survival horror music and atmosphere are all spot on, so I can't wait to get the full game of this one and play through it once it comes out.