How does everyone like this game compared to DAC on pc/mobile?

One thing that stands out is this game's item system. Having guaranteed items after neutral rounds really can shape future battles in your favor.

Units that are extremely powerful: batrider, kunkka, medusa, lycan, drow, slark.

I’ve played against bots for about 4 hours. The game seems neat, but I need to look up strategies in terms of what I should be doing. How long should I commit on trying to level up a few units? Are the higher gold level units worth it enough I should stop buying cheaper units after a certain point? The draft makes it hard to know how deep I should go in on something. Like if I have two level 2 units, but I haven’t seen a level 1 in 10 minutes, should I abandon all hope that I’ll ever upgrade this unit to level 3 or should I keep waiting?

In the early rounds, just spend your gold on having units in your inventory. After all, you can sell them for the costprice whenever you need money. Just having them around gives you potential 2 star units in upcoming rounds. Always try to hit 10,20,30,40 gold at the end of the round for that extra interest. So if you end up with 35 gold or something, use that spare gold to buy XP or sell some deadwood in your inventory to hit 40 gold for the 4 gold interest. If you have a solid team that doesn't lose hard, just keep gathering money until you hit that 50g mark. Spend all excess money to always retain 50g . Once you start losing hard, use your spare gold to buy xp or re-roll for higher tier units. Don't re-roll unless you're in danger or if it won't affect your interest to roll + buy a unit. Getting a tier 3 unit is quite an hassle and requires a lot of space in your inventory, so if you go for a tier 3 unit, do it one at a time. It's often a lot more powerful & feasible to go for a higher cost tier 2 unit than to keep gathering 1 gold units for that eventual tier 3 unit. That said, if the game keeps showering you with a certain unit, it's def worth trying to get that tier 3.

Oh and in general, it's good form to prioritize slow hitting units to get attack speed & fast hitting units to get attack damage if you have to make that decision. Also make sure that your melee units don't spend multiple seconds moving around your frontline before they can get a hit in or something.