OOF, what a review! Thank you so much for taking the time to write all of that.
For the clocks, I intentionally wanted players to observe and figure out their patterns themselves—for example, noticing that the basic clock loops every 6 spaces, the angry one every 4, and the slow one every 12. I thought discovering those patterns would be part of the puzzle.
And yeah, the "move 1 tick at action 5" mechanic was definitely frustrating for a lot of people at first. But, just like you said, once it clicks, it feels really satisfying and you start building little algorithms in your head.
Thank you again, and thanks for recommending the game to your game dev friends! That really means a lot.