Oh my gosh, this is beautiful! "You can have a YSRF narrative, but without gameplay integration, you aren't a YSRF game." is such a powerful phrase and it's really gonna stick with me moving forward. Both the Machine and Human working together -- not only through narrative but through gameplay as well -- is definitely a big theme that I think is valuable in YSRF games.
I've (sadly) never played a Pikmin game, but I'd love to look into it for inspiration. Thank you for the mention!