I see you had a similar idea to my own regarding the ending. A coincidence...?
...Probably.
unclarity of rules- Yeah, the compass tells you where you to go. That's actually good. Points for the red-herring hearts, though.
visual ugliness: It's very simplistic pixel art. It doesn't have much in the way of detail, but it isn't ugly. I actually thought the boxes were pretty nice.
audio mismatch- The silence with just move-sounds is a little jarring, but not particularly unpleasant.
unplayability- The controls and compass work well, but the 5 seconds of text on running into anything turn the game into a minefield of frustration- And of course, there isn't a proper ending.
misinterpretation of the topic- For what little story there is, it seems to stick pretty well to the topic.
overall irritation/disappointment/cringe- Honestly, aside from the bit about text popping up whenever you touch anything and the ending, this feels more like a prototype for something potentially decent than something purely awful. I was actually pretty okay with playing through this... As long as I avoided touching anything, that is.
The "overall" section basically sums up my feelings on this one.