I think it's one of those games that, for a variety of reasons, has mostly stayed under the radar. Which is probably a shame, as it looks like it's still scoring well, at least amongst players (I've not seen many "professional" reviews for it).
I myself have only dinked around with the game a tiny bit (I picked it up on GOG a few months back), although I had fun the little time I spent with it. It seems like it's a cool little space empire-builder for those who don't want to worry about war or military threats.