MIRTS is actually an incredibly shallow take on RTS. I remember playing an extremely similar game back in 2007 and I also remember thinking that game was extremely similar to design docs that I had seen people blogging about a few years earlier.
MIRTS is something I'd expect from a weekend programming jam. It's a minimal effort and it's not surprising that it did minimally well in the marketplace.
Oh and totally give A Dark Room a shot. You may find it pretty okay.
PS: I'm totally gonna frame this comment thread. I'm big fan Braid and The Witness. You? Not so much :-)