I'm giving PON another try for the first time since 1.01. I'm a couple of years into a 1.03e USA campaign (after a couple of false starts to learn the economy), and I'm having a great time. I loved Imperialism and the original Victoria, but never got into Victoria 2 (if you play historically as US and go laissez faire, the game basically plays itself).
There's a lot to do in PON, but it helps when you realize that you can't (in fact, shouldn't) do everything at once. You nudge things along more than shove them. So far so good.
I hope they stick with this game. There's really nothing else like it.