I appreciate that feedback, and thank you for being frank about the theming. That's pretty fair, and it's a consequence of a major direction change about two days in. (I found the light mechanic good enough to build a game around, rather than use it as a single obstacle.) Audio is the other casualty of that same change, and its going to be on the list of post jam adjustments.
I spent a lot of time getting the early levels to work as a silent tutorial, so I'm glad to hear that stood out.