The naval combat is pretty much AC4, plus you get a decent survival game, land combat, crafting and management mechanics for your ship, and boarding combat. Everything people have been requesting Ubisoft to do for years.

not every good game has to innovate, some games take what's already been made and improve/combine it in a way that elevates them above other ones.

not saying this game fits the descriptions - it's on my wishlist but i'll make a judgement when i can actually play it. but just saying that just because it's been done before, doesn't mean it can't be good

I watched some gameplay with titles like: this game is actually amazing or a pirate game that slaps or whatever. And it was just genuinely underwhelming

There was also one with a ship in a bottle, but I don't know the details on it.

Yeah, too often bought games like this only for no one to care about it a month later. Now I won't ever buy one in launch and instead wait a while to see if anyone is still playing it or not. Some do remain popular like Valheim but you also get quite a few that become irrelevant.