This has been one of the most touching game experiences I've had. I can't think of a better example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.
Besides the outstanding visual and musical approach (I love how you materialize this "deconstruction" of your own world through a rasterized, jittery pixel and a downsampled, bitcrushed wave), your focus on the player experience (the horizon of expectations, particularly) is so accomplished, and I believe it works wonderfully to convey this cycle of kindling that you're talking of.
Thank you so much for this experience ompuco, this has been so inspiring. Art is worth living for.