Age of Wonders is a turnbased strategy game, and I have wasted plenty of hours into both story and skirmishes. I think AoW3 (even if I haven't played it yet) is a worthwhile purchase. You might also want to check AoW: Planetfall out if you are more into Scifi settings.
1. The AoW franchise bundle has a 70% discount on steam, same for the AoW Planetfall bundle.
2. I spend like at least 100 hours in this game.
3. ... there's a lot of lore for the units? And the various species of AoW are dealing with each other's shit, I guess?
4. Oh, is it ever RPG. You can customize your character by picking the species they lead, what kind of magic they use, you can gain hero units that you can specialize and equip with your own created tools, there's a lot.
5. AoW3 was published in 2014, AoW Planetfall in 2019. Also, Triump Studios are good developers, I think they fixed whatever issues were present.
6. All dlc is done, I believe. No news