Realization that I think a lot of modern game designers won’t like: I think kids actually like grinding. It’s comforting to them. And it’s not really a grind if the mechanics and sensory aspects are still novel, even if they’re doing them over and over.
The guy gets 30 minutes of screen time a day. He’s used his last three sessions going back into the same cave in Pikmin 4 to beat the Arctic Cannonbeetle over and over to get raw materials, which he can use to acquire gear from the lab, which I suppose will make it easier to go through the last levels of Cavern for a King. Though I’m not sure the utility factors into it.