I think there was a bit of a risk (and maybe an inevitability) in using unfairness and difficulty in an attempt to generate a feeling of hopelessness, since it can so easily become frustration. It seems like I should probably have put a bit more time into fine-tuning the controls so that the unfairness feels like it's the world that's unfair, as opposed to the game being unable to understand what the player wants. Maybe that would have helped?
Thanks for playing!