After a few minutes of playing, I started to get a good understanding of the card colors, the population types, and the biomes. As for the effect cards, after a while they begin to sink in as well (even though I haven’t fully understood every single effect yet), and they start to make sense within the overall gameplay.
Regarding card/mission balance, I don’t think I can give a very definitive opinion, since that’s something that really needs a lot of repeated plays to evaluate properly. So here’s just my personal impression based on my experience: I didn’t notice any particular imbalance. There were a few moments when I couldn’t play a card, but not too often, and I felt like my objective was achievable (I needed to get 5 mountains, but my opponent won, it was close, I had 4).
And as for whether I would play it if it were a physical card game, the answer is yes :)