I found Dogs in the Vineyard to suffer from that same kind of awkwardness.  There’s this escalation mechanic that forces the narrative but you can totally mechanically game the entire thing.  So you can’t really act the way you want you have to make bizarre choices based on what dice you have.   It was a very grating experience that no one really came to grips with.

Far to many times it turned out;  My roll sucks so I either purposely tank what I’m doing and get screwed over.  I just escalate it to face shooting and win.  I get a little roughed up and get some xp out of the deal but really it’s just stalling the story.  

When I read through MotoBushido it didn’t seem as jarring as DitV but it would seem your experience is very similar in play.