It’s a country that’s overlooked since UAE has skyscrapers or high rises while Oman doesn’t have that (since their focus is more on culture and maintaining the “old Arabia” look & vibe whilst being rich in their own way). I mean, you can look up travel content about the UAE and there’s tons of results while for Oman the amount of travel content is kind of sparse in comparison even though people do go there.
I’ve worked in Dubai and had the opportunity to drive with a local to Muscat. It was interesting, but . . . only because he was local and knew a few cool beaches and inlets to stop into on the drive. If I had been doing that drive alone . . well, you nailed it in your OP. Oman is rather . . sparse. And as for Muscat itself . . well, in a region with Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha & Bahrain . . . its hard to justify as a top 10 tourist destination.
tl;dr: Glad a saw it . . I won’t go out of my way to see it again.