To be honest, I usually skip scenes that tends not go along with the story
and I did that on the squid games sequel,

the 2nd season has some powerful casts that was not utilized on the story, there are some new cast as well
character progression was focused on season 1 characters and not much on the game it self.

may be they used the doll because it was a huge success on season 1, the new game was the carousel, that was new
may be season 3 can answer some of the missing piece on the characters.

hopefully season 3 has a good progression on the characters and the story,
the thrill was gone, the magic went alive on the carousel game, but most of the 7 episode is just a bridge for season 3.