I've recruited many settlers, half of which are vanilla ones, the other half a staggering amount of SS2 unique NPCs. I've let SS2 mostly run on auto-pilot since the beginning of the game. Feel free to rant with me though, might make me feel better and less dumb. I dunno, I don't want this to be a rant topic, I just needed it off my chest.
Let me explain, though feel free to skip to the TL:DR if you don't wanna read the 'blowing off steam' part.