It depends on what you find painful. If it bothers you that the game doesn't look good, then I'd say it is definitely painful to play. The resolution, detail, colorfulness etc. are just nowhere near what you can see in Youtube videos. But that is understandable given the low-end settings.
The core mechanics are what makes civ6 civ6, they make me want to play this new game. Thankfully the UI remains responsive and the game feels rock solid. Sluggish animations are no big deal in a turn based game like they would be in a FPS or RTS game. So overall I definitely feel less immersed and therefore experience some pain playing, but at least I do enjoy it. And I know that Civ6 will last way longer than my current hardware so things will improve over time.