first time i'm hearing about this manga and I found your take on it really interesting, it's very form vs function. you can have things that are beautiful for beauty's sake and you can have things that are utilitarian and are excellent because they work well. and in an ideal scenario the thing is so well designed to do its job that it is beautiful as well

and like you said things don't NEED a great premise/concept/plot because in the hands of a master even the simplest most trite and overdone premise can be interesting

so I guess it is up to the creator what the goal or project of something is!