To me, the correct way to play Minecraft is with a friend and pursuing silly, enjoyable goals.
Something I had a lot of fun doing is playing as "The Heart Tree" while my partner tried to support me. Essentially, I chose a tree I really liked, cut it down except for its lowest block (now designated "The Heart Block"), and I always would have to be touching or very close to logs which descend from the original tree.
I also had fun playing Modded Skyblock with my friend from high school, focusing on guiding progression and decorating (since I knew how to progress a lot better than he did), but not making too much progress personally.
To me, I intrinsically feel a drive to constantly chase progression, but ultimately find myself more fulfilled when I try and lay back and weave progression with genuine attention and enjoying the "unproductive" things, looking to make nifty floor patterns and building materials and interacting with friends.
to be fair, i think it might just be because it's funny. it is funny.