This game does make sense
However, the only thing that didn't make sense was the death-respawn delay. If you're going to make a game that is difficult and has counterintuitive (or at least counter-most-other-games) physics, then the player is going to die often.
Combine this with an unecessary delay whenever you die, and the result is what I feel this is a pretty heavy design flaw. Dying entails sitting through the long, annoying scream and a couple seconds of delay. Contrast this with hard platformers like Super Meat Boy, etc. that feature nearly instantaneous respawning.
When a difficult game respawns you instantly, it is an invitation to get back into the action - your character is ripe and ready again, and you start playing again before you get second thoughts about saying "screw this." Contrast here - almost every death makes you wait. And in waiting, you can ask that question - do I feel like doing this?