I tried it, but unfortunately it is no where close to Minecraft. Crafting items is a pain from what I can tell, unless I'm just not recognizing some shortcuts.

i only play minetest so i can't compare. for complex items you have to craft the ingredients first, so it can end up in a chain from raw materials until you got your actual item done. it can be a bit tedious, but on the other hand if you need an item many times, bulk crafting works well, it is just as easy to create a single item as it is to create hundreds of them.