I also just don't think Catan is actually all that "fun" once you've played a couple of times.

It's a decent intro board game because the mechanics aren't terribly complex, you don't have to manage too many pieces, and there's so much randomness that any given player can win if they're even vaguely trying.

But that last bit is also its achilles heel - there's so much randomness that the strategy is basically ankle deep. It just becomes a session of "do I have friendly people at the table" or "can I cajole/harass people into bad trades".

Neither of those are all that fun (at least to me). There are much better social games, and there are much better strategy games.