I said this in a review I left, but I had the same kind of frustration as Mollyarty and I think it was a matter of expectations. Like, when I encounter a programming game, I expect a problem-solving game - a series of tasks to be tackled with whatever resources are available - and Silicon Zeroes simply is not a problem-solving game. You don't want us to invent solutions, you want us to find whatever solutions you already came up with.
In a problem-solving game, mechanics exist to give the players more tools with which to achieve their goals. In a puzzle game, mechanics exist to give you more tools with which to design obstacles. Approaching this as a problem solving game, then, I feel jerked around, because (to reference the puzzle I quit the game over) the company already has subtract-chips and input-select chips and there's no reason for me not to use those. I can do what this egregious asshole of a fictional character is asking me to do, but you just won't let me - and that makes me feel jerked around by you, not just the character you want me to hate.
In a puzzle game, these design choices are fine. And if I knew this was a puzzle game, I wouldn't have minded because I wouldn't have played it. But I didn't know it was a puzzle game, so when it created meaningless challenges with no in-universe justification, I hated it.
I don't know if this is a helpful comment to you, but reading your reply to Mollyarty, I felt like you were missing a point, so I wanted to highlight it.