As the title says, not only compared to other paradox games but also every strategy game ever made.

Its "historically" very accurate and detailed for a 4x grand strategy map, emulating real terrain and geography better than most games.
Its aesthetically pleasing to look at, using really nice textures, building models and water animations.
Despite anything happening in game, it runs/performs really well, zooming in and out or just messing around rotating camera in 360 degrees with zero problems/lag, having the smoothest transitioning.

The team that worked on map programming in I:R made a real masterpiece and deserve serious praising imo. Its also one of those things that pile on I:R's reputation being a hidden "gem" of a game.