Check out my original post about Staging Gameplay Mechanics & Discreteness since this directly builds on it.
In art, there's a concept of value contrast. If you're painting something, it's often worth exaggerating & simplifying the more granular, harder to see distinction between light and shadow areas in order to emphasize certain parts of the object you're painting. Often the goal is to convey its 3D form better, but it can be used for other things too, and generally makes art more readable & confident looking. In animation, this is equivalent to clear key poses & held frames.
When applying this concept to gameplay mechanics, it doesn't lose its power. Players, especially less experienced players, are very blind to nuances, those in-between colors. If you want your game's depth to be better perceived (at the loss of actual depth usually, btw) you need to create strong Contrast between the different states of your gameplay mechanics.
Imagine a racing game boost pad. Now imagine a mechanic where, depending on how close you are to the center of the boost pad when you hit it, you will gain speed. Let's say you're going at 1200 speed units, and the boost pads can add anything from 0 (outer edges) to 100 speed (very center of the boost pad). The game factors in every single pixel when determining how much of the speed boost to give you, so being even one pixel off from the center will give you only a 99 speed boost.
This is a very granular mechanic, and if combined with others can lead to a lot of depth. However, because of a combination of said granularity & very proportional speed gains/losses, the mechanic isn't very readable - it's not well staged.
Now check the pic & apply it to a boost pad. In order to make it more readable, you not only have to reduce that smooth gradient into more discrete states, but you have to create strong contrast in the effect these discrete states have on the player's performance.
So instead of a boost pad that adds 0 to 100 speed relative to the center, you have a boost pad with 5 zones (or well, 9 zones technically) with very noticable speed increases. Assuming all else is equal, the overall depth will be lost, but players will understand that every single zone has a meaning on a very real, visceral level. Add some fancy, clear, unique VFX/SFX for each one of those "zones" and you've got a pretty Well Staged™ mechanic.
This of course applies to shmup scoring & platformers as well, not just racing games. It's much more difficult to apply this to dynamics because of how variable and out-of-your control they are, but it's still possible. It especially applies to non-primary mechanics, discrete-ifying them will usually be appreciated.