TBH it's not really the end of the world. I remember the first one running like hot garbage on my PC. Granted maybe it was my shitty CPU being FX-8320 at that time.
On my machine I got around 40-70 with the default settings. For a city management game having a stable (meaning not crashing) game would be its first priority. Although I definitely see this as an early access release regardless of what CO is saying. So I played this on my Game Pass sub. My regional pricing for Game Pass is really good, as converted to the dollar is only tree fiddy. Although the minimum wage in my country is only 1/4 of the US so it all adds up to the same I guess.
Mate, if you're paying 50$ and have a really good PC, the base level competency should atleast be that the game runs. Let alone the quality or content.
That doesn't make the criticisms invalid. But, there's always an option to vote with your wallet by treating this release as an early access and not buying it with the current condition and with full price.
Most people lambasting the game makes it seem that they HAVE to buy the game with the current condition no matter what. Just file this game as a play in Game Pass or buy it next year when there's a sale. If more people skip from buying the game at full price the devs will get the message and will try to release the game when the game is ready to be released like Larian.
I actually do this by buying recent Larian games (D:OS, D:OS2, & BG3) at day one or close to it after the review embargo is lifted (to see whether it's worth buying or not) to reward them releasing their games in a complete state. Even BG3 had some issues with performance and cut content with their 3rd act.