Maybe you're focusing on the style too much, and not enough on other artistic elements. Which is understandable in the preview.
I personally enjoy Stardew Valley, and I am sure I will enjoy the Chocolatier. I think these are video games as an art form; not the ground breaking type which makes the critics drool over it, but something like a Bob Ross kitsch that you want to put into your home to make it cozier.
> Maybe you're focusing on the style too much, and not enough on other artistic elements.
Well if we look at another "artistic element" of the game, we see that it relies on the absolutely shit combat from SDV, which doesn't exactly inspire hope from the gameplay.
The point is that it's really fucking boring to get the same art style again. Why am I going to play a game that bores me just by looking at it? I want to have fun. That's what games are for.
Apparently, as we've learned today, if you're looking for variety and novelty in artistic style, you probably won't find it in the works of ConcernedApe. That's probably a very polarizing "love it or hate it" moment for quite a lot of people. From a press standpoint, best to put that out there early on, and let people form an opinion. Far better than letting them build up anticipation for a year!
Plus, we don't know that the sounds/tileset aren't just placeholders to allow him to release the trailer's vertical slice! I appreciate that this is unlikely, but still! What we recognize as normal development practices don't necessarily apply to a studio of one.