Saw a streamer discuss how a lot of videogames, in particular indie games, have conflicts that boil down to "stagnation", of an unhealthy enduring status quo that the player serves as an agent to break. I realised this framing actually succinctly captures a lot of my tastes.
I think what ultimately appeals to me about stagnation conflicts is how ineffable and intangible it is as an antagonistic force, and thus how miraculous and astonishing it feels when it is overcome - how it so controls cause-and-effect that to defeat it is to transcend causality.