At first I agreed with many of the negative reviews. After playing a while I grew to love this. The main thing is its replay value. Since you do need jewels to move ahead, buy upgrades, etc., you can replay levels to get more of them. You're rewarded each time although any spent are gone regardless if you complete the level or not.
Once I started trying to get upgrades, etc I loved it because I could go back and grab more jewels by getting better scores or completing tasks. As far as clicking ahead, you can buy that with jewels as an upgrade and it helps with game play.
I say to give it a chance before you decide you don't like it. I'm glad I did because this one will take me hours to complete.