I can have fun without needing to build anything meaningful at all though, but when the barriers get to close, that's when I start having an issue, in my experience. That's why I play games that don't replicate work in a sense.

Your implication that the definition of fun excludes meaningfulness is equally problematic.

I don't think they're saying that per-se, I think they're saying: it's perfectly ok to both "have fun" AND "not build something meaningful" at the same time. I don't think you need to read in that having fun necessarily excludes doing something meaningful.

While we're on the topic of assuming intent: that invented word "problematic" - problematic to whom? Something being a problem is almost always a subjective stance, not a universal truth as that word implies.

problematic to the maintenance of a good-faith social contract

What is this contract?

I find it hard to believe that faux dumbfounded naivete jives with the terms of the social contract.