I decided to buy. Been playing it a lot. There's a learning curve that's steep(not as steep as Crusader Kings II), but its more of a step by step learning experience. One town fails, I figure out why, start a new town and repeat this until I have finally a stable town. My main fault was growing too fast which I find a slight negative for the game, you have to be patient which is rarely a plus for me in an RTS game. I'm not talking ACTION PACT, but just waiting a few years to do anything of substance. As well once I figured out how the game works i'm always at speed 10 which is a good indicator of the 'down time' this game has. I also agree with above posts that it needs more middle and late game things to do.
Disasters so far are rare and easily fixed. All you need to do to stop an epidemic in your town is have one hospital that only requires one colonist to be the doc during the epidemic and the sick people get better fast. I've never seen an illness go beyond 5 people. Fires are rare and easily handled by dividing areas of the town by streets which I was doing regardless. The tornado could be devastating, but it doesn't seem to go into town much.
It is an enjoyable enough game though. The 'one more turn' translates the experience well enough even though its an RTS. So they got my money, but I feel let down because I do not see myself playing it much further.