Why is Palworld so popular?

I've played it for a bit, and while it seems fine, I also don't see what makes it any different than the ten thousand other open-world survival/base-building games. There's nothing special about Palworld as far as I can see, and it's genuinely in contention for the single most soulless game I've ever played in my life. It feels like a hundred of this exact game releases every single month. Are people really that enticed by a picture of a Pokemon knock-off holding an assault rifle?