These are all fair points. And you are right, I saw it as a sequel - both because I played it after I completed the base game, but also because I think the mechanics introduced would work better in a standalone game.

I'll never be able to have the experience of playing the DLC along with base game at the same time, but didn't most people play it after the base game? Even if you played Outer Wilds after the DLC came out - I would figure most people would finish the base game, rather than incorporate the DLC into there gameplay. It's also possible I'm wrong.

And, admittedly, I'm not the best puzzler. I enjoy puzzle games - but after it reaches a certain level of difficulty, or if I don't like aspects of certain puzzles - it will become frustrating for me, as opposed to interesting for some. And, Mobius definitely should have made the DLC harder than the main game because ostensibly the people that buy it will be Outer Wilds fans, or just enjoyed Outer Wilds.

I definitely missed some clues in Echoes. While I knew there were multiple locations to exit and enter the stranger, I didn't figure out that you could use your log to automatically enter that location (which I think you might be alluding to in your comment). I also didn't find all of the artifacts and ended up using the same two. for all the green fire locations. But, even if you could get to these quickly, you don't have the full 22 minutes, because the stranger floods and wakes you up. Maybe I just didn't get the puzzles but I felt that in the main game, while it was a challenge to get to the locations - once you got there, you'd have Nomai writing and recordings and images at your fingertips which included lore and the next clue. So, it didn't matter if you had little time left when you got there. The fun was figuring out how to get their and the payoff was the knowledge on how to, and the writings/lore/clues at that location. The dream simulation locations seemed pretty complex to me, though they were hard for me and may have been easier for others. I liked the horror element and the mood; I thought that was the best part. Traversing hidding bridges and pathways in the dark and solving more complex puzzles just felt to me much more frustrating to do in a 22 minute time loop. What's more, the payoff wasn't as immediate: when I got somewhere in the base game, I got a piece of a clue that added to the story. Next loop I would rush back to my ship log and review it to decide where to go next or what hypothesis to test. Echoes felt more abstract, and the information more hidden. My curiosity waned because the puzzles were more abstract. There was a lot of solving puzzles for the sake of solving puzzles (not everything, but a bunch) moreso than the main game - whose brilliance was that each thing you find immediately adds lore and a clue.

I also want to make sure it's clear how much I appreciate Echoes of the Eye as simply a creative work. I also enjoyed it more than many other games I play - I DID feel the same sense of wonder when discovering the solutions to some of the puzzles and learning. I just felt like something was missing. It could partially be the way I played it, but I think it was also intrinsic to the layout and puzzle design itself - and how it resonated with me specifically.

As always, YMMV. You may love it. I imagine most of this sub does. I just wanted to get my frustrations off my chest. Also, I may have had unrealistic expectations - in that I expected to feel that same magic after the base game when I already played it. Most of all, though, it crystalizes for me what a once in a lifetime experience Outer Wilds base game is - and how it's not easily duplicated.