A Short Hike is incredible because the player's intrinsic motivations line up so perfectly with the Claire's
it's naturally satisfying to do the activities which contribute to your ability to conquer the mountain.
The length of the game is literally in the title A Short Hike
like the Tibetan Buddhists painstakingly assembling gorgeous colorful Mandalas one sand particle at a time,
only to then destroy the Mandalas at the end of the ritual
the game is a lesson in Impermanence
all of existence, without exception, is "inconstant"
All temporal things, material or mental, are in a continuous change of condition, subject to decline and destruction.
All physical and mental events are not metaphysically real, that they are not constant or permanent, they come into being and dissolve.