I realise as you commented that I said Heru IV but I meant Heru II the one on the furthest right lower side because yes I go for Jade and Grojdanna all the time.
Ultimately I'm talking about how I feel about progression in this game. It's not that learning how to do new runs is impossible it's just I'm not given enough natural incentive (run ins with the characters/events that involve them to build familiarity) and time to have a few turns to waste to let me want to take time to explore more deeply.
When I arrived in Heru II and found they were all hostile I didnt have any idea of what would be needed to figure them out and also figured that they didnt have enough votes to make it worth my effort to even worry about visiting them. Ignoring them completely basically doesn't impact my run noticeably. Yes there's some kind of disease/bioweapon going on but that seems like so many steps and I'm already barely having the time to reach the other things I need.
And this is where I think LLTQ did a better job of getting the player curious about different things they could be doing whilst they were on a particular playthrough. It made it so in a game it was much easier to think of doing differently for other runs since the flavourtext told you what your skills did or fill you in with the lore which got mybrain churning possibilities.
Also there was stuff like random letters from Briony filling you in with Kevin's antics, running into Selene and Julianna having a quiet moment together which clarifies some of the coldness if you chose to be cruel to Julianna etc. It felt like the characters had interlocking stories in a more tangible way than we have at the moment because most of the scripted events involved them.
I tend to marry Kevin when possible purely because he killed me on so many occasions and when I finally figured out his background and got the thorny but sweet romance epilogue I felt trauma bonded. I don't think there's enough interactions to reach the same level here.
Also the flavourtext from your lessons really helped with worldbuilding which helps you know in subsequent runs what might be needed to unlock different options or just what might be possible. For me reading the flavourtext in LLTQ did spark a curiosity that made me want to try different things.
My progression so far has been:
Going into the game blind fumbling around until I landed on a strategy that worked then optimising to win the game via elections. During the process securing a vote by marriage I stumbled into the genetic information. When I accepted Krovos as a spiritual advisor because I was annoyed with the actual official leader being a bitch every time I tried to make nice with her I stumbled into passing the check on turn 10 and combined with Krovos's personal quest and failing to entertain Mirelle's child with a magic trick I got curious enough about lumens and tried more runs to figure out that side of the story. With a lot of trial and error to get the required pieces all in one run and Vasily giving the hint that the Emperor was at the opera to let me know my time limit I finally got a run that worked killed him then got more curious about the former empress and thats kinda what I'm working on now.
Sadly not much of the story points me towards the rest of the characters. And even though I have some familiarity with the game I think thats actually leaving me to feel more like I dont have time to get the right stats at the same time I'm in the area for certain characters
I've been curious about maybe 3 people Eve, Krovos and weirdly the guy on the same planet as Lorkas.
Eve because what is up with her and our mother???
Krovos because I'm down for a new religion but it seems there's no plans to create a heretic cult in the game.
And the other guy (I forgot his name) because I was trying to secure a vote and I heard about his son and wanted to see where that went but then I realised I would need an extra turn and I instead went for Lorkas who's willing to let you marry her daughter in 2 social points.
The time crunch really kills my desire to waste time on uncertain rewards and because learning information also takes an action and typically I'm spending max 2 turns on an area and I'm not returning unless I have to stop there on the way to another place.