At the very least for the games I am looking for my expectations are, if I step away from the computer for 30 minutes I should be further along than if I had only stepped away for 2 minutes, for example.
Well, you can theoretically leave it running on the right setting, yes. Though most of this games experience is done in around 10-13 hours, so it is not one of this giant 1000 hour idle games.
It doesn't need to be a 1000 hour experience, though if leaving it running overnight is just not a thing then this is likely not the kind of game that I was looking for.