This is one of those series I experienced as a kid that I assumed was just nostalgia when I grew up. Upon replaying the series plus the new Completing the Mission, I can confidently say that NOPE IT WAS ALWAYS GOOD.
I find it to be very high praise of a visual-novel type game if I manage to like them, considering I don't hold them too highly as representative of the medium. But Henry Stickmin is so insanely funny that it absolutely makes up for the lack of gameplay.
Really the only criticism I can make of the series is that it very quickly became more about seeing the fails than actually succeeding at the objective. But even then, Completing the Mission manages to somewhat circumvent this by playing with expectations both in what does or doesn't work, again, making up the difference by simply being really funny.