I know 2048 seems like a big number but you understand that that would be 12 pipes? Most people would get that in the first minute of play. The tile colors do change every time you hit the doubled value.
It just needs to be made harder. It took me a lot longer than 1 minute to get > 12 pipes in the original.
A better mix of the games would increment by 2 or 4 randomly, like the 2048 board does. It's not like either game is over in 11 moves.