Happy to hear you like it!
Yeah, it's a pretty common for games in the genre to go for full-on misery, which I'm not overly fond of either. I think it's far more interesting to have some level of contrast, a mix of both lighthearted and darker stuff going on.
Ironically, I think it's also easier to pull off as compared to going for pure misery or pure humor.
And yeah, I for sure have more fun making the game when I'm playing around with tropes and ideas, as opposed to just following lines in the sand.