This is really cool, though it took me a while to understand the leveling and sacred flame mechanics. I know there is a journal entry that hints at this but somehow I did not see it until 16 minutes in (by which point I'd figured it out) haha
I am terrible at puzzle games, but this was some cool exploration and I liked the writing. I agree that it has some good potential for improvement, glad you hear you're already planning on it! I appreciated the little (i) icon with journal entries that had hints, like "You are done with this statue, no need to take it with you anymore"... definitely necessary for a noob such as myself, haha.
It feels great unlocking new statues because it feels like a real power spike haha, good job with the balance there.
One thing I would say, I'm not sure if there is a way to speed up the game actions themselves , if not then it feels maybe a bit tedious at points, like the start when it's always the same string of actions for (so basically just waiting 30 seconds) , or the big ones that take 15-20 seconds etc. For me all the waiting kind of detracted from the exploration / story a bit, I was excited to get back and go one step or two steps further to see what's ahead, but often that would take 2-3 minutes just to get back haha.
Good game overall, I liked it. Seems pretty unique