That never once occurred to me. Is that directly stated in game?

Exactly my sentiment. When I heard about this game first, I was like oh my god post-apocalyptic postman delivering packages? That's exactly the kind of game I want to play. And then he was like but there's this baby and there's also liquid dream demons, I was like oh okay whatever but I can still just deliver packages right, and then every single cutscene could take anywhere from 5:00 to sometimes 20 minutes, I was like oh, I definitely don't care about the exposition, But as you said, they just kept adding layers of nonsense until I would literally watch YouTube videos straight through cutscenes because I knew they weren't going to answer any questions or provide like interesting context, they just seemed so irrelevant. Just let me be a package deliverer who upgrades my package capacity and rebuilds the town. That was interesting.

Hideo might just be making this for himself and he enjoys the story, but I want to play the package delivery part. Just make me the package delivery game and then write all the less interesting stuff in a journal in real life but don't put it in the game.

I love to play Tycoon Games and Death Stranding feelt for me like one but with a little horror and shooting. Planing my Route, upgrading the streets, building constructions to be more effective and getting Likes for my constructions. I think it's a great game if you don't expect a Action shooter.

Nothing more therapeutic than taking a nice walk across the wilderness, with a baby strapped on your chest, three meters high packages stacked on your backpack, while evading occasional muggers and ghosts on the way.

I spent about 5 hours on it and gave up. I kept waiting for it to get better, but it felt kind of like playing the original Zork, but prettier:

Look left Look right Nothing happens You have been eaten by a grue