Well, by boring I don’t necessarily mean tedious (though it is that before you get bots), but rather that it’s trivial. “totally painless, literally one click” is also boring.
I enjoyed the dynamics of managing supply to my steam power plant, especially the challenge in bootstrapping after a blackout because your electric miners run super slow at partial power. Dealing with steam power blackouts in the midgame was one of the defining Factorio experiences for me – your massive factory suddenly becomes a liability and you comically run around hauling coal by hand and deliberately cutting off power. Of course you can prevent it with independent power grids and such, but that’s a fun litle logistical problem in itself (and easy to screw up with a stray extra power pole)