It isn't the same game as on PC as it does not force you to complete a day to save.

At first it was, but this didnt work well on mobile because the players themselves were mobile and did not have dedicated time to deal with this game mechanic. But by fixing it for mobile with backgrounding and automatic state saving, it breaks the core incentive of the game.

Just my two cents.

Core incentive to play a game should always be to have fun while doing so.

In my opinion, not being forced to complete an in-game day in one sitting, but rather at your own leisure, matches perfectly the chill and leisurely gameplay of Stardew Valley.

But is that actually an issue if the people playing it are having a good time and like the game that way?

I never opined on whether it’s an issue.

“Is game same in a fundamentally way, yes/no.” No more, no less.

I forgot about that, but I actually prefer it. But I'm also curious what the core incentive is that you feel this change breaks.

Urgency, planning, consequences

Do you go crystal farm, or do you go into town and form a relationship, or routine watering of your farm, or …

You are still required to sleep regularly to get energy back.

I think people are conditioned to expect games with an "exploitative" ad-based or in-app purchase model. The conditioning to not expect an upfront cost to purchase is reinforced by the huge number of low/no effort apps resulting from the low barrier to entry. People don't want to pay for apps with little or no utility, lots of bugs, etc., and that's the vast majority of apps.

It's going to take a big player having the fortitude sustain the marketing (and potential losses) to sell an app that doesn't fit in this paradigm.

Most people don't see them as exploitative to begin with. No more so than they think about how much exploitative work was done to make a movie behind the scenes.

For a good 80+%, it's a simple time waster to play for an hour between the day. Not a gambling simulator, not a hardcore grinding MMO-lite. And if they think something is a ripoff, they have literal thousands of other games they can try in minutes.