Cosy games
Just played through Spiritfarer, and I think I have a theory about Cosy Games. Cosy Games by-customer-need must fit in a genre where you are both given clear instruction for what to do (achiever) and also something you can doodle on with no expectations (explorer). This is why RPG style games sort-of fit, because once mastery is achieved the game becomes rote, and you trivially achieve while exploring.
This is why a game built for being Cosy doesn't work. It must simultaneously satisfy both urges, the urge to get told you're doing well at a given task, and the urge to not be held to a high standard. You end up with games which are regimented in that they must score you somehow, but also they need to sort of act like they don't care about it. That's what feels off about these games. They're like “here's a task, you could do it, or not upto you”. This is also kind of where Animal Crossing sort of works: It gives you tasks a computer cannot score (draw a picture, make a song) other than completion, which the player dictates. Then, the other residents “judge” you on it, and they're always nice. It's a neat trick where they bait-and-switch from game rules –> narrative.
Ergo, if you're making a cosy game, you should create open ended tasks and then the “judgement” should come from narrative elements.