Definitely works to help just dive in, you've more than succeeded here. It's a style that so few tabletop games even try, let alone do well.
This kind of this is always gonna have crunch, though, so please don't feel pressure to waiver and dial it down to cater for everyone.
I've got some ideas to hack parts of this system to make it more of a game for me. If I come up with something I'll be sure to post it here.