The game starts with the player character stuck in a grey cubical and escaping to a small farming community of fantasy-level quaintness and rural charm. How is treating the game like an algorithm to optimize not perverse?

People just play games differently. I like to keep the wiki open, but not go to lengths to min-max. My brother likes to min-max and be efficient as possible.

The beauty of games is that they allow different playstyles. I will say that Stardew tends to push towards min-max because time moves so fast. That's how I felt, anyway. Playing with a mod to slow down time about 25-30% made the game much less stressful.

I think you misunderstand my intent. It is not to say that there is anything wrong, per-se, with playing a game in a manner that is wholly contrary to its themes. However, that is, by definition, perverse.

I think you might be looking for the word "ludonarrative dissonance"

"Ludonarrative dissonance is the conflict between a video game's narrative told through the story and the narrative told through the gameplay."

examples:

- Cyberpunk 2077 - Your character is dying of a virus and needs to quickly find a cure. Meanwhile youre doing a whole bunch of side quests that take a lot of in game time.

- Any RPG - Characters can be endlessly revived using items but die permanently in cut scenes.

- GTA4 - Main character is trying to leave their violent past behind them. Meanwhile you can blow people up with an rpg.

"However, that is, by definition, perverse."

I don't think that's by definition wrong for stardew valley. That's your interpretation based on the intro. The developer might not find it perverse to play that way at all.

Explaining irony is so meta.