I also found the presentation distracting and the mechanics interesting, and I am quite accustomed to games that are text only. Simultaneously decoding glyphs and figuring out mechanics felt like more effort than it was worth.

While I cannot speak for the developer, I can understand why they would go that route. Unless you have an interest in computer graphics, implementing them can be dreadfully dull. Unless you have an eye for design, creating the various graphical elements can lead to some interesting results.