Things do get built, the squares get filled up. A bunch of dark work must have gone into it. But as it is now, it's not much of a game.
On my screen I only have expand north and east, and it doesnt always go north or east or expand from the most recent addition.
Conceptually, it can work. Maybe if the terrain is previewable around the city so you can make choices based on that? Like 'mh, to the east there is a lot of rocks, lets put industry at 80% and hope we get some mines when we expand east'.