I really enjoy RimWorld :D doesnt have to be all warcrimes and organ trade, and with the abundance of mods you can totally build up a solarpunk utopia in any flavor you like (also with the ideology dlc you can actually ingrain specific values to your colonists and theres a huge variety of meme mods for it)
unfortunately, it doesnt go on sale more than 10% like ever.
edit: its on sale for 20%, DLCs 10%!
as the article correctly states, not all hydrogels are made the same. the ones in diapers and menstrual pads are specifically designed to NOT rerelease absorbed liquids. there are other hydrogels out there which are designed to absorb and dry out repeatedly without degrading or losing absorbancy, and are therefore more suitable for plants. i dont have any deeper experience with hydrogels, but I did have it as a consideration for my kratky (passive) hydroponics setup.