Papers, Please has the aesthetic subtly of a brick, which may distract you from the dynamic subtly of actual gameplay.

If you do well, Papers, Please allows you to flow really deeply into a state of focused play. Efficient movement, checking, interactions, etc. make it very easy to ignore the people and focus on the papers, and become a contented cog in the dystopian machine. You may even feel frustration with people, especially when the reason stamp pops up, who make you break out of this loop because you need to interrogate them. Yes, you get more money if you're a good cog, that's a mechanical reward, but being a good cog also lets you have more fun, because it lets you perfect the gameplay loop the game presents to you.

Papers, Please doesn't narratively reward your emotions for being a dystopia cog, but it does ludically reward your emotions for being a cog. That's some interesting dissonance to have going on.