Oh no for sure, I'm even a bit worried I was coming off that way haha. I figure I'm also somewhat projecting my feelings towards the nsmb series onto levels that are more traditionally designed even though I do get a kick out of them.I agree with you in a sense, for exactly the same reason. There is only so much you can do with the tools we have had for 3 decades so it's natural to expand into other areas. My level features subtle symbolic insight as well, like if you really look for them you'll see that the spacing between two scenes (i.e. the "downtime" between two meaningful ideas) is exactly one screen apart, so that in exactly the same moment that one idea leaves you, the other one comes into your vision. I even made it so that you can see exactly 1 tile of the object part of puzzle 1 and 1 tile of an object part of puzzle 2 show at the very ends of the screen if you stand in the middle of them, as a way to denote that you're in some sort of a transition period. I spend way too much time on such nonsense haha. That said, I can't make a level whose foundation isn't that formula you described, it is the basis of what consitutes a good level to me but at the same time I'm not trying to tell others how to design their levels. Hope it doesn't come off that way! Some people enjoy overcoming a difficult challenge in a pixel platforming sense even if it doesn't offer any insight, which is cool, not my thing though. I enjoy seeing unexpected consequences of combining two ideas that seemingly wouldn't result in anything meaningful, that's when I get really excited for some reason.
Your levels sound fun though!