Really interesting concept!
I actually find it very philosophical as I play. It's like a visual metaphor of life; finding the best path by trying things yourself, while also learning from the lives of others (both the successes and failures). And it drives home the importance of failure, and how every success owes most of its credit to many failures.
It's strange how strongly philosophical I find it, since I'm assuming that wasn't your intent in the design, while with some other games that are intentionally designed as a metaphor just don't connect for me.