Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a thoughtful, detailed comment, feedback like this is honestly rare and I really appreciate the care that went into it.
For context on the choice: I wanted the score to reflect everyone at court performing normalcy while something's deeply wrong underneath, so the restraint was less about building tiptoe-suspense and more about the music staying composed the way the characters are pretending to be. A different, more atmospheric approach like you're describing would suit a lot of detective scoring beautifully, just wasn't quite the emotional target I was going for here.
Really appreciate the Poirot reference either way. Thanks again for playing, and for putting this much thought into your comment, means a lot.