I began my career as a Kerbalnaut much the same as you did, seeing it pop up in Steam now and again and tossing it aside as something which looked boring or not worth the cost or what have you. Then, one day, I was on YouTube. While looking over my subscriptions, I spied a 0.18 gameplay video. Watching that video made me realize that this thing could have some potential to it, and so I visited the Steam page and grabbed the demo. I was instantly hooked, and after putting hours into the free version, I bought it (around late April or so.) I haven't looked back once. You're not on the outside, clinging to the windowsill, you're on the inside of an ever expanding rocket blasting off to version 1.0 and beyond. Welcome to the club, we kept the pot on for you.