I think Austin's point is the game is very po-faced in tone, and even Aloy's little remarks aren't enough to change how self-serious the game feels. Even the grimmest of games had comedic relief at points (Walking Dead, Wolfenstein TNO, Manhunt, I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, etc), so the humor being relegated to just the protagonist would certainly be an odd choice. No one is asking for the world be treated as "campy or joky".
By games being ones you just play to while listening to a podcast, it just means the storytelling and characters might not be engaging enough to bother listening to the dialogue. I certainly wouldn't play Witcher 3 while playing the Bloody Baron quest or many other sidequests.
By systemic interactions, the comparison is to Far Cry where you can directly influence the animals to fight for you from 3 onwards rather than just watch a random or scripted AI vs AI encounter.
