It’s always difficult to be sure about these things, but I’m not convinced that “arms-length authorial play” is necessary for transparent play. If we analogize to a different field, I am able to get just as engaged with a character in A Song of Ice and Fire as I am in a first-person book. I think there’s an expectation that access to outside-the-character info is incompatible with immersing in character, but I’m not sure that expectation is accurate.