>When I run into the guy with horns and green eyes it's over.
That's the boss, and I'd say that reaching him is a nice result! I have kept him noticeably above every other enemy, even considering its boss status, because in the demo beating it unlocks higher difficulties, that require an higher average combo to have a shot at. When starting the game, tangled feels like a bonus because in the allotted movement time new players can't really make more than 60 profitable moves, so the time aspect is just an added difficulty. With more experience you start moving orbs fast enough that you make around a hundred moves on average to clear the whole board relying on muscle memory (example run), which makes tangle a status that forces you not to rely on speed.
>If the board was taller, I wouldn't feel like it depended on luck as much in that case
This also ultimately depends on the player's experience. At a high level, increasing the board size would increase the variance of your average stat output, because you clear more orbs and the probability that the orbs replacing them cause additional combos increases.