While many players seem to view this game as a genocide simulator, I personally much prefer peaceful (or "peaceful", as much as a criminal empire come interstellar conglomerate can be) runs. Similar to CK3: Don't forget to role-play. Winning is rarely satisfying but doing a specific thing is. Be the Space UN.

Everything seemed so overwhelming. I wish the start would slowly introduce stuff to players accordingly to the your civilization's needs and not bombard me with so much information at once.
After a while it seemed so fun to explore new worlds and making new colonies. Combat is so immersive as you control your space fleet's every move.

Stellaris is an interesting mix of bits and pieces from many different games. First and foremost is Paradox's normal grand strategy bits, but it also takes inspiration from Master of Orion, Sins of a Solar Empire, Civilization, and many other strategy games that have come before it. Sometimes successfully, sometimes not. The good news is that the game is still being actively developed. Bugs are being fixed, there's a lively modding community, new free updates and new paid DLC come out regularly, even 5 years in.