> Puzzles start feeling like they're asking more for busywork than for puzzle-solving. I enjoy thinking about "how do I do this?" I don't enjoy thinking "well, I know exactly what I want to do, but it's a huge slog to actually go through the motions."
Wow, I just finished the first level and I can already tell that I'm going to love this game. Tightly crafted puzzle games are my favorite genre - thanks for mentioning this one.
I think you will enjoy this puzzle game:
http://qrostar.skr.jp/en/jelly/
Don't let the cutesy graphics fool you, this is a masterpiece in puzzle design.
In case you are not on Windows or don't want to download the exe for some reason right now, you can try this html simplified version
https://avorobey.github.io/jelly/