I'm totally with you personally, but sometimes doing the actually hard part is fun. Type 2 fun.

Long ago I took a CPU architecture class and we implemented designs in Verilog as a final project. Apparently people who took the class in the late 90s (before my time) could actually tape-out their designs and pay a few hundred dollars to get fabbed chips as part of a multiproject wafer. I was always curious if those chips actually worked, or just looked pretty.

My advice would be to consider the possibility, not necessarily to stay out of the physical world. For some, those physical details may be the fun part. Some hate verilog. Some want to put it on an FPGA, some don't. I, personally, moved away from FPGAs due to bad documentation (looking at you, Lattice).

An alternative to Verilog is RTl simulation in a higher-level Language, or even higher-level Simulation.

Just remember that you can't define what is "fun".

id take it further to say dont even design your own ISA because its super rewarding watching your custom designed CPU run real software from an actual compiler (all you need is rv32i minus the CSRs)

Couldn't disagree more. To the extent building a homebrew CPU is interesting at all, for me it's _only_ making it actually work despite all of the real world hiccups that make it interesting. Designing it in the simulator is "easy".