I'm a little torn on the mechanics. On the one hand, I actually found it cool to pop back in to the Hotel and harvest some coins that are tied IRL time progression. It wasn't a chore and felt natural to check out every now and then. And it's actually a nice reference to the original novel where the cat and the fox trick Pinocchio into planting his gold coins for an alleged gold coin tree and stealing them in the process.
On the other hand, the cube did kind of feel underwhelming from a gameplay perspective and didn't have anything to do with the story, really. Most of the effects were exclusive to the Specter too and didn't feel as substantial as the different grindstones.
Overall, I don't mind them, but you could cut them from the game and I wouldn't mind, probably
