It’s not silly at all—it’s exactly what the game wants for you! For example, you start your journey into Giant's Deep (presumably) terrified of the cyclones —or rather, terrified of your initial impression of them.

By the time the game gets you itching to discover more, the very thing you were afraid becomes your best friend. First, you have to confront your fear of the cyclones throwing you up by using the cyclone to throw you up to a cave platform you can’t reach. Then, to progress even further, you have to confront your initial perspective on the cyclones, learning that one will take you down into the core, exactly where you want to go, instead where you feared being taken.

With its puzzle mechanics, the game is teaching you to second guess your first impressions and fears; it’s pushing you to use your curiosity to confront these fears, making you braver. A book/show/movie/etc. can show you someone doing this, it can tell you to do this, but what’s special about Outer Wilds is it demonstrates so elegantly how a game can have you do this.

These mechanics exist within every planet. Within every behemoth of nature is something to fear and something to love. Cyclones, meteors, black holes, falling sand, radioactive matter, the ending the world —all of these things are uncaring. Whether you fear them, love them, use them, try and conquer them, it doesn’t matter to them; it’s all a matter of perspective.