Sounds like you want something different than what he intended. That's his business, not yours =)
I don't mean to come off as demanding - people can make what they want to make - I just feel like sometimes people tack this kind of mechanic onto a game not because it's essential, but because (consciously or subconsciously) they're afraid people won't know what to do with a video game that doesn't give you a dopamine kick in the form of a number going up. Of course I don't know if that was the case here (though I suspect it might be), it's just that this game touches on a much bigger story of exasperation with the world of game design, for me.
What would your ideal "not-game" look like? Are you sure you wouldn't be happy with a game like Factorio which is basically a perfect sandbox (despite having lots of stats if you go to look at them)?
Sandboxes are cool in their own way, but aren't really the same thing
For me personally, the specific version of this that I want is a world to explore for exploration's sake, without anything quantifiable to be gained by doing so. The Stanley Parable is a good example of this, if you've heard of it. I use "world" and "explore" very loosely; exploring where you can go and what you can do as the engineer of a train would fall under this umbrella. Even if the answer is "not a whole lot", there's an aliveness and a wondering that comes from even such a tiny slice of a world.
But as soon as a performance metric is introduced there's this "should statement" hanging over my head, reshaping the whole experience.
The problem is when every game feels the need to have metrics, even when they fly in the face of the rest of the experience. Sometimes I want something different.
There are plenty more on itchio as well: https://itch.io/games/tag-walking-simulator