We just played a game of Magnate tonight and both enjoyed it. I've never played Settlers, so I can't really compare them, but I liked how the game uses the decktet components well, taking advantage of its special characteristics.
The way resources are produced, the higher cards have much better chances of producing than the lower ones, but the lower ones are much easier to place on the board, so our game saw many turns where nothing was produced. I can see how placing deeds for high cards can be useful because you at least get one resource for the card. Also, it's better to have your resources as cards on the board where they're not affected by taxation (Twice in the game I had to pay 4+ resources to the taxman just when I was about to use them to play a higher card!). In this game I was the only one to place a deed, but I think it was worth it in the end, as it won me the district at the end of the game.
Also, it seems that it's easy to score the same number of VPs, as there are just four districts. Our game was decided by the total ranks of the cards as my gf managed to steal a district from me on the last turn. But in the end I totaled 40 vs. her 37. It was pretty close though.
So we both liked the game and will be playing it again. I'm not sure, but maybe I'd like to see cards on the table producing more, as it seems most of the resources (especially at the beginning and middle of the game) come from lucky 10 rolls and selling cards. I'm thinking different ways to do that, maybe if the highest dice doesn't produce anything, let the other die produce, or maybe just rolling one die (did you try this? if so, how did it go?). Of course, if the cards on the table produce more, players will play more cards and sell less cards, so the game will probably end up being shorter…
Anyway, I think it's a good game and these are just random thoughts :D we'll try the game as it is some more times before trying any changes…