Thanks for the comment, really happy you got to try the dead end and liked it!
Our intention was for the bar to indicate your "Sanity" or some other parameter, where there is a sweet spot distance to the ghost, where you have most sanity. If you go further away or closer to the ghost, the bar drops, and it you get too far away or too close, you lose - the map is just a bit too complex for anyone to get far enough away for it to be used :P