Tbh, It's actually really hard to get right, esp in a jam. Since you are building the game you're an expert with the controls lol, and the jam voting becomes the playtest. 😅
(Not that it matters, but funnily one of the first games I ever built, but didn't ship, was a game where when you press the screen and a diver goes down and you side scroll through an underwater level.. similar to your game. So I know personally, this mechanic is just hard to get right for everyone's reflexes. Nevertheless what you built was fun and you innovated really nicely with the loopiness :D )