I dislike how the main quest doesn't involve the NPCs.

Let's take repairing the bridge to the quarry as an example. In other farming/community sims, this quest would involve talking to someone who wants it repaired, the player finding some carpenter in town to help, the player gathering items for construction, and then after a couple days the bridge would be fixed and the villagers would thank you with a little celebration.

In Stardew Valley, the player donates some wood and berries to the Community Center, and then some magic creatures fix the bridge overnight. Most NPCs don't recognize that the bridge is fixed at all, let alone that the player helped out. This game is too focused on giving the player lots of tasks rather than justifying those tasks in the world.

I have other problems with the base game, but the modding community here is so extensive that every other issue has a mod to fix it. The main quest is the only thing that can't be modded to be fixed, so it's my only remaining complaint.

The plot isn't video gamey at all. This isn't a story about going around the world to different temples to power up your sword to defeat god. This is a story about realistic issues like water conservation and desertification. The whole game takes place around one small town, the gameplay is about gathering resources to build everyday objects like fences and bridges, and the antagonists are normal people.
If you want a game about a small town, with all the melodrama, economics, politics that comes with it, then this is easily the best game there is. Keep in mind though that is a very long game. Even when I did every main quest as soon as it could be completed, there was a romanceable character I didn't meet until 100 hours/over a year into the game. As such it can be repetitive and lack polish, but it's still a 10/10 from me because of how uniquely realistic the plot is.