Thanks for your kind, thoughtful and insightful words!
Did you actually try to build anything for yourself? I wish I was able to get the sharing stuff working, as that would have been a good reason for players to actually engage with the concept. Everyone loves to show off their inventiveness, right? While that would have been a fairly easy thing to add, there simply wasn't enough time.
About three-quarters of the way through, I realised I had actually built a fairly similar game years ago in Flash, for Aardman Animations (the people behind Wallace and Gromit). That project took me about 6 months, with a team of professionals helping. At that point I realised just how much time I'd need to get the entry to a polished completed state: Another 6 months!
Mistakes were made. By me. A lot.