Thanks for the feedback! As for the health system, the realistic answer was that implementing spikes/fire was the first thing I did because it was an easy sanity check to make sure the level worked, and then I just kept it in the game because why not. I think I did see a similar type of system in a puzzle book, once:
https://caravelgames.com/Articles/Games_2/TLP.html
(although not a sokoban game).