Ok so I went through and played all your games in a row and this one is my favorite.
What I prefer about this game over Kill the KOTH is how much more second to second decisions I was making about climbing. By having you constantly look for slopes that you can climb and evaluating whether they're in the sun or not, it ends up feeling a lot more engaging. I think that sort of scouting out spots to climb mimics real life rock climbing a lot and it was really fun here. Looking at each slope is like looking for hand holds, and with how dense the level was you had to switch hand holds really frequently to make any progress, so your brain is always scouting. The sun is an added layer to consider and with the exception of one confusing section, it was a really good layer to add to the experience.
Making everything dependent on a stamina bar just takes away a lot of that evaluation, sure you still have to judge the height but that's harder to judge and once you've started climbing you kind of just have to wait until you either make it, or you don't. The controls are also less generous and there isn't as much switching from hand hold to hand hold, and when you are switching, you don't really have to evaluate the hand hold much, because you either make it, or you don't.
I don't want to sound like I didn't like Kill the KOTH, I really liked it actually, the atmosphere and experience were great, I just ended up preferring this iteration on the climbing idea. I also don't think you should just redo Kill the KOTH to be like this game or whatever, especially since so many people like Kill the KOTH, but I thought it was interesting how even small mechanical ideas and changes can make similar systems feel different.
Thanks for all the amazing games, can't wait for Lorn's Lure, I'm sure I'm going to love that one too