I watched the stream of this being made and I think what you could be experiencing is that the magnet actually has power and it used to show the power as a number but then near the end it was removed so unfortunately the player has no way of knowing how much magnet power they have. essentially the power meter fills up while you aren't using it. It went up to 100 and would go down as you're clicking.
Viewing post in Chick Magnet jam comments
I played through the game then read this. On my second playthrough it felt very different. Because I could predict what the magnet was going to do it seemed like the controls were much tighter. This playthrough was much easier, though I also had practice from before. It seems telegraphing state to the player is important.
yeah I don't remember the exact reason why it was taken out. I wanna say I vaguely remember some kind of meter was going to be done but time ran out so I guess maybe the thought was just a number doesn't match the rest of the polish and aesthetic of the game so it was removed. I think you definitely showcased the importance for having that visual feedback in the game after second playthrough
I had a similar issue to a game I"m working on. I have a jetpack and I had this meter but I didn't like how it worked. So I made the particles effect get lesser and lesser as an alternative means to a meter to show when your fuel/power was running out