The game itself isn't solely about walking, although that is the main form of transportation. It's about reconnecting a country.
People call it a walking simulator, but that's like calling Super Mario Bros a jumping simulator. It's how you get from point A to point B, for the most part, but that's not what the premise of the game is all about. It's a divisive game, but it's SUPPOSED to be. That was Kojima's whole point.
The game certainly isn't for everyone, but for someone like myself, who is all in on continuing to try to push the video game medium as an art form, I'm all for it. That doesn't mean that I don't enjoy my yearly installment of COD, or romping through a haunted house in Luigi's Manion 3, or an improved version of Fallout in Outer Worlds, but sometimes I need something in my video games to make me think about why I am doing what I am doing.
Death Stranding is just that for me.