While I think the timeloop mechanics are cool and you shouldn't fundamentally change them,
Llamamann, I can kind of see
emkayvee's point, because on a first-time playthrough, without referring to the walkthrough, it can be pretty confusing. (Not like
Primer confusing, but definitely in the "making diagrams with straws" range.)
Once you hit the end of the first loop and the game resets, it's not obvious what you're supposed to be doing or what the rules and mechanics are for causing changes in the timeline. Going to prom with Bailey seems like the obvious end-goal, but there were hardly any opportunities to even interact with her in the first run-through, and once you start the replay and see the same options and same events recurring, this starts to look hopeless. Nor are you given any obvious opportunities to thwart Melvin (at first). "So what," the player may ask, "am I actually supposed to be doing?"
The fact that you should be trying to get either your mom or your sister to go as your date instead of Alexa in order to advance the story is not ever made explicit, to my recollection (and given that either would be considered social suicide in any high school I've ever heard of, and it has no obvious connection with Melvin's scheme, is somewhat counterintuitive): it's only implied by the point system and choice towards the end of the loop.
Then when differences do start to creep into the timeline, it's very difficult to tell what is causing them, and to figure out how to actually manipulate them. And if you have no idea what leads to differences, then you can't act on it.
Personally I only started to put it together after having (more or less accidentally) zapped Lexxx a couple of times, and seeing that change her behavior in repeat loops. That gave me something I could grab hold of, an actionable clue I could use to play the game
deliberately rather than just at random.
I think the problem is that while Alexa (rather cryptically) talks about how some of the time-travel stuff works in-universe, the goals and mechanics
from the player's point of view are never really explained: you just kind of have to figure them out on your own.
Perhaps one possible tweak that would make it a little easier to follow would be if Alexa at the end of each loop, before wiping your memory, gave you (the player) a nudge in the right direction. Something like, "How many times are we going to keep doing this, MC? Why didn't you try [X]?" (Where X is a thing you can try in the next iteration in order to advance the story.) Not as an in-game walkthrough, but more as a kind of quest log, giving you an idea of your immediate objective, to provide a motivation to go through the loop again.