my 2 cent, i spend 3500 USD dollars on CoC and played a year, and still enjoying it (not kidding, max base farming de and talking to other coc players i known for months.) And there is another game which i shall not name and I spend 1,000 on it and have been playing for two months. That game is so Pay to play, that the game is so easy and not as fun as clash at advance gameplay.
But of course we all have different definition of fun, my own definition of fun is challenge. Clash of clans is a game made to play for longterm and for people to make longterm goals. Other games that seems more fun is only temporary and will not last as long (goals too easy to achieve). I gemmed both games and fast forwarded the goals, and clash still wins. The other games like clash are money money money hogs even as they give out free gems(to sucker people in but the people on top who drops thousands are paying the price of addiction as the game goes into a money scheme circle). Clash is different and most fair on gem value.
Thats only one side of the cent, the other side is CoC is un♥♥♥♥able. Now even spending three times as much as this other game on clash, is so much worth every penny than a grand i drop in a game that is so easily ♥♥♥♥able even server sided (flaws in coding, not a strong company/developers).
TL

R
Better to invest your time in a game that is slowly but surely still rising than copies of clash or other sorts of games only developed for purely money cycle schemes