Yeah, of course the reviews for this game are below average for this kind of game, which obviously means some people don't like it as much while they like others, of a similar type (the examples you mentioned: 2d graphic sandbox), more. And that can be reason for concern if Andrealphus wanted to compete with them.
But for one point it would be absolutely annoying if all devs would go for the way that gets them a maximum rating because that would mean most games would be virtually the same. And while many people would enjoy that (hence the good ratings), others not as much, so if you find your niche then you can ignore part of the rating issue. That there's always some players not liking games is unavoidable, you may just not fit their taste (and since I heard complaints about "my mother is not a virgin but had sex with other people" I think everything is possible). So games being different is a good thing for the whole genre, even if it means some people will enjoy less games.
And I think this is especially true with the whole "grindy" question. Some players, myself included, prefer a slow story progression, prefer working a bit for their reward. Others want to have every girl jumping at them in the first scene. Yet others are inbetween. None of them is wrong, but again, many would not like the other games.
And the second point is: a dev more or less has to do what they want to do. Listen to their players and patrons for ideas, sure. But a dev who makes a game solely for player requests will most likely make a game they themselves would not like as much, and the game will suffer for it. There's more to it than just "drop mechanic X and add kink Y and people will love your game more". They probably won't, even if they despise mechanic X and love kink Y.
As for me, of the three games compared here I prefer L&S by far and would be disappointed if it were to be closer to the others. Which admittedly is a somewhat moot point since I am not a patron (so far), and it doesn't mean that the other games are bad, just that different people have different tastes.