In defense, I think "weird" is overly dismissed in film. The intent of some sequences like this is to make the audience surprised or uncomfortable (the soundtrack at Do Long Bridge in Apoc Now?), which gets dismissed as a director simply making bad choices.
My personal bugaboo is programmers chuckling knowingly at the CG in Hackers: "That's not what code looks like."
Well, no shit Sherlock, maybe it was an artistic choice to try to convey the experience of debugging to an audience who wouldn't be able to understand C on the screen?
Man if that's what debugging is like for you, I need to get ahold of whatever you're on when you crank up gdb. For me, accountants poring over tax returns and corporate statements is much closer to the reality of it.
I'd definitely describe my flow state as much less about characters and more a synesthesia-eque mental visualization of data structures and interfaces.
I believe Garland has hinted he’s intending to re-adapt The Beach himself at some point.
Maybe I just like Garland's films but not his signature. If you have other recommendations I'd be interested.
Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, and even 28 Days Later have related sequences.