This is the kind of title written by someone who treats their own opinion as fact. I know you're not that kind of guy, Mike! It has a 78 on opencritic, with plenty of reviews in the "weak" range, so a little research would have shown its perfectly possible for you to not like Rime when you play it.
I finished the game.Yeah from what I've seen I wouldn't describe it as a puzzle game. It looks like its one of those Journey style, chill indie adventure games but it doesn't pull it off anywhere near as well. The devs describe it as "puzzle-adventure", which I guess implies it should be a bit more puzzle focused than it actually is. Plus this kind of game has been done a lot now, and Rime doesn't seem to do much to be unique.
It got better towards the end but had a poor ending imo. I'd compare it a lot to Bound. That game had VR to help make up for the poorer gameplay.
Some puzzles became puzzles but I really wouldn't call this a puzzle focused game. Instead it has more of a story focus.