Thanks for the thorough reply! I did make this game as an avid TD fan, and it's true that a lot of them end up playing very similarly even to this day. I the direction you mentioned of leaning more into the physics with portals and such. I think elemental stuff is helpful for design, but I will only use that as a last resort since that's leaning more towards classic design.
Regardless, the point of this game and all my games is to push game design just a little bit further. So I'm always gonna try some radical stuff even if it doesn't work out.