There seems to be something deeper I'm missing. I also made abstract art, and typically the only way someone gets the meaning of my art is if I explain it. Here is what I have so far. Basically, the observer wants to experience something real because they are tired of the fake, the unreal engine (joke). Then, they go to the reality only to find Sisyphean Tasks. The infinite loop of the code symbolizes the pointless infinite loop of life. The conclusion of the observer is to go back to the unreal, the fake, and see beauty. However, they don't want to be sent back, and they might have. This game has a lot of truth in it. There are the infinite loops in life that are meaningless and painful. Beauty as a social construct as it typically is can't be defined true or false, and it doesn't even exist to some extent. I don't agree with your conclusions as to this justifying escapism, but it does make sense from a certain point of view. More games should be like this to some degree.
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I think you got the big things :)! Also curious if you tried looking at the console logging. My attitude toward escapism is complex (if you want to read a cogent and less defeatist defense of escapism, try Tolkien’s On Fairy Stories if you haven’t – some of it he grounds in his Christianity, but a lot of it is applicable regardless), and this game is definitely a lot more one-sidedly negative toward everyday life than I tend to feel