I remember well going for a quest, seeing a cave and then falling through a rabbit hole into a death cult while being a laughably underpowered magician.
It felt closer to what I commonly experience with D&D than other games, mostly due to the combination of freedom and curated world.
That said, yes combat was dull, uninspired and probably the weakest part of the series.
Crunch made sense then when all employees more or less owned the company.
I also like the fact that Sid Meier was never on board with having his name sticked on every product but the publishers pushed him to do so because of people like Peter Molyneux.