It's possible... but it's not as much of an impulse buy.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1124180/Rail_Route/ is pretty niche (and is in my library) ... and its $25, which is a fair bit less than the $40 price point planned for Steam. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1134710/NIMBY_Rails/ NIMBY Rails is at $19 (also in my library).

It could very well be a great game... though that price is one that's setting the expectations for it high.

Maybe it's worth it, but currently it's very hard for those people to distinguish it from a game that's not worth it to them.

This gets into the economics of whether it's more worthwhile to sell to a large, casual audience for say $10 or a small enthusiast audience at $30-40. At the enthusiast price I expect a polished game at launch and loads of reasonably priced expansions in the not too distant future.