Honestly, I think it's a matter of sincerity.
It doesn't matter how ridiculous and stupid and silly the premise is, if you commit to it with your whole ass, your efforts will show and people will be immersed into the world you've created.
I'm so used to shows/movies based on other properties making fun of themselves because "oh look we're that stupid silly game, oh we're mascots, isn't it crazy and dumb that we're that property?? Isn't it silly that we're doing tropes?"
Like idk man I didn't think you were when I went in but now I do because you clearly hate yourself.
And when I saw this was a show now, I was more baffled than anything else, because???? What????
And since it was such a fuckin trend, I could already imagine the stupid bullshit nonsense it was gonna be. They were gonna be making Among Us jokes at every turn. Isn't it so ridiculous that we're doing Among Us. Isn't that person stupid for getting killed. How lame is it that we're voting to kill people, etc.
But to my shock, it wasn't. It wasn't ironic even a little bit. It took its premise of murder beans in space dead seriously, and none of its jokes were the ironic insecure kind that poke fun at itself. It's a smart show with well-written plot twists, natural developments of both plot and character, and it has rewatch value in that you can go "oh of COURSE that one was the imposter the whole time, look at how they're acting!!"
It was SINCERE, and its belief in itself let me get immersed even when the stupidest bullshit ever was happening onscreen.
It's like, an actually good show??? You don't have to have played the game to understand what's going on, and you don't have to know what their references are for the jokes to be funny. It's absolutely fuckin stunning that the bar is that low, but this show still rises above with flying colors.
The whole plot of the season itself does feel very exactly like an actual game session, even with the mechanical liberties they took. It's also very anti-corpo and pro-union and has a message very similar to the first Alien movie.
And, of course, I was infinitely entertained by how these little dudes are not stylized humans- their species (and gender) is simply "crewmate".
The orgy was a surprise, though.