I mean no offense but I’m not sure I understood half of what you said, so I’ll try to answer the question instead.
I understand that the game wants to have a layer of mystery over its mechanics that you simply intuit as you work your way through these first puzzles, but it needs to do something so that it actually clicks in. Doing the same thing five times and then hitting a brick wall is not exactly what I’d envision. By dedicated introduction I mean having a narrative/map progression clearly unlock or progress after you do a few of them. I see a lot of things around this first area but I cannot figure or do much with most of them, and the things I could solve led to nothing. I need something to grab onto so I can derive some meaning from my actions.
I hope this clears it up a bit.