> it sits uncomfortably between parody and not

Yeah that's a thought I've had too, and the vast majority of idle games are just putting a new theme on top of the same crappy formula. But the ones that try something new are usually pretty interesting.

I would highly recommend Melvor Idle's "Ancient Relics" mode, from the AoD expansion. It turns a relatively simple idle game into something that requires genuine planning and strategy, simply by gating skill cap increases behind clearing a new dungeon.