So while I wouldn't use the "experiment" word as it seems to suggest things were tried without really being thought through (which clearly isn't the case, reading through SJ designer notes will probably convince anyone of that), I do agree with 8houseofelixir that the breaks it makes with some well established 4Xs standards (civ first and foremost) are indeed a form of risk and should be expected to turn off some players at least at first. As examples:
- moving from "use all units every turn" to the order system, and as a consequence unfold combat on several turns and remove most passive damage like counter attacks, or
- restricting the places one can settle (even if that was already very common in space 4X when you only settle solar systems for instance, or region/province based games)
Indeed those are points we often see in critiques of the game.
Maybe it is amplified in the comparisons with civ (or expectations/assumptions from players coming from civ) because the games superficially look very similar (and ofc there's a degree of filiation, if only because our Lead designer was a civ lead designer too) but doesn't play the same.
For many players civ 5 or 6 were the first games where they played on hex tiles (laugh all you want, I've read so many comments stating that OW took hex tiles from civ that I think it's relevant). Of course the top down view of a map with the triad of Nations/Cities/Units is a staple of many 4Xs/strategy games which can easily make one think most of one's previous 4X experience should apply.