As someone who also noticed this but am still willing to wait for an update, I think I know one reason why it feels that way.
Simply put, this is not a pony story. This is a generic stock story that could fit, literally any series; you could remove every pony and replace them with humans, and it would change absolutely nothing.
It's a decent enough story sure, but the issue is, that we bronies expect stories that focus on ponies. It's not the 'contemporary genre is friendship' it's "MAGIC is friendship," and while you could still have a low magic setting, this story fails to account for any of the things that would create a unique pony society. It is a similar reason as to why gen 5 is a total failure. And why gen 2 is just plain weird (ponies should probably never drive human cars, ever)
I'm sure a bit of rewriting of chapter 1, adding a scene here or there, and focusing on what makes the ponies special and not a simple stand-in for humans, could help a lot with defeating such concerns people have.
(Also everyone can claim they won an award for X, Y, and Z. I don't see anything here that would win an award on fimfiction yet. Maybe with some rewrites and revisions, but not yet. Fallout Equestria, Anthropology, Past Sins, this is not.)
Please don't take this as heartless criticism, as someone who is VERY invested in the art of lesbian horse, I want to see this project continue and succeed. I cannot be the only one making these games, simply cannot. These are just my thoughts though, and I'm a crazy insane eldrich creature far too obsessed with magical horses, so take all this with a grain of salt.