Gorgeous and charming are kind enough words!
I get what you say with the game not feeling super gameboy, I think since the palette can create the illusion of more colors it loses a bit of that monochrome edge. I wasn't too concerned with the 16x16 grid either when creating and placing assets so there's some friction there as well. I think it's worth it for the final look but I'm not expecting it to pass as an OG gameboy game anytime soon.
We had bigger things in mind for the gameplay aspect, but scope constraints come for us all and unfortunately the player actions and puzzles took the brunt of it.
Hopefully you can finish the game and let us know what you think then!