Spent the last ten minutes after shutting the game down thinking about why this doesn't work for me when something like Inside very much does.
The puzzles? Maybe. Inside's in media res thing was also compelling, though Planet of Lana doesn't spend too much time before its inciting incident.
Man, I don't know. I guess there's not just 1 line between "this is alright" and "damn, alright". It's multiple lines, and identifying the threshold is murky at best.