I think that the fears of "shallowness" aren't unfounded. But the key difference between this game and the sims is that this game isn't simply about "watching"
In the Sims, my favorite parts were making the sims, building the house, downloading massive amounts of items. Using those items? using my sims? using my house? I was bored in minutes... But the problem is, once you make your sims, they're made. Once you build your house it's done (except for modifications on occasion). You're stuck watching (yes, controlling, but I couldn't get into the mode) and waiting for the next opportunity to upgrade your house, buy new clothes/items, etc.
With Spore, you have the same kind of customization/build choices. But in between you're not watching, it's an action game. Action nulls the time while you're waiting for the next opportunity to upgrade. If in the sims, I brought my sims out to kill my neighbors or had them solve puzzles and such (where I solve the puzzle, not watch them do it) then it would have been much more tolerable for me.
So, I think that people worrying that the game will be simple, shallow, cartoony, etc, is fine. What we have to do is not envision what we most want in a game, but instead think about what we know this game will include already and think of what we want out of that. Think of what we want to do with the game we know we have already. Making mining outposts on planets for resource acquisition and a system wide trade route, raiding fleets to other systems and planets of slave breeding, etc, is all good speculation. But speculation gets us built up to high. Just think of what we know already, and if you really think about it, what we know is pretty damn cool.
