I'm not going to give my opinion on the review, as a team member I don't think that would be right - but it's worth noting that not everything that goes into the gallery goes in solely on it's merit as a game. The showcase part in "showcase gallery" could be because somethings a technical showcase of how someone has done something particularly well and the code deserves looking at. Well, that's my understanding anyway.
Point is that reviewing game play alone won't always work. But maybe that's an error on our part and it should be first and foremost about game play and nothing else?