A company like Paradox should certainly be able afford testers who run the game on a variety of configurations to see if optimization is necessary.

One thing I would say and this is a broad statement - generally you don't do optimization unless you know you need it. And you only do it after the thing you're writing is working correctly non-optimally. Optimize too soon, or when you don't need to just makes code an unmaintainable mess. That doesn't doesn't preclude writing efficient code in the first place but efficient is not the same thing as optimal.

I am absolutely with you there. I do not like the fact that the performance is pretty bad. But a game that „just“ has performance issues is potentially fixable. Games where the core gameplay loop is broken are usually not getting better over time.

And I will play City Skylines for years to come so buying it right now and playing with lower settings and less then stellar performance is fine and I will hopefully be able to increase these things over time.

More complex but you have less control over what is produced, it's more about getting workers to their jobs and transporting goods efficiently than making efficient production lines.