I played Spirit Island for the first time on Tabletop Simulator and it felt kinda cluttered and too hard to anticipate what happens next. But playing it at a real table with all the little pieces was completely different. We played many times with 4 players since and added the expansions only after a while. The base game is completely fine in my opinion and doesn't feel incomplete.
I didn't really get into AH LCG. I only played it in TTS and felt like I had little control over the game. There were so many random elements that could affect all subsequent games that we abandoned it in frustration. And isn't the price much higher with all the campaigns than SI?
Exactly. Maybe I'm sounding awfully optimistic, but I actually enjoy the slow pace here. Posts can be 1 week old and there are still comments popping up after a while. It also makes interactions more meaningful in a way.