Personally I really the loops subgenre, with stuff like stuck in time, increlution, cavernous, etc. They give such a strong sense of progression over time. I think a lot of that is how the speed improvements are polynomial so progression didn’t feel like it diminished over time.
Oh hey, the loops subgenre typically does that part well! They tend to have a narrative (rare for incrementals, I know!) That explains the looping.