Stardew Valley: 1.6 ended up being a little larger in scope than originally planned. I'm done adding major new content to it now, though, and it's in a bug-fixing and polishing phase until it's ready.
My wife doesn’t game either but holding a tablet for hours and months gave her “tennis elbow” and she was finally essentially ordered to quit by her doctor. Lmao.
I just picked it up to play casually on steam deck, and it’s fun; in the same vein as Animal Crossing with a 16 bit RPG style. Plenty of depth and homestead building. You are correct that it’s a huge time suck, but unlike AC, you don’t have FOMO of missing days/events when you don’t play. It’s been a great de-stress distraction when I’ve needed it most.
I find it addicting for a few days. Then I put it down for awhile.
It's a great game to go back to and pick up where you left off because you can go in any direction you feel like going in. "Losing your place" and not knowing what you were doing doesn't really happen. You just start doing whatever you feel like again. It's an excellent casual game you can play on one save for years.
But when you do go back you'll be hooked for awhile all over.