My 2¢ only:
Not sure. I've heard the piece played with a Western dramatic "Sturm und Drang", which seems totally out of place for this particular music. If you're familiar with a gamelan (which I think Debussy is trying to capture the spirit, if not the sound of here), you'll notice that drama seems absent. Same for "direction", at least in a Western sense. Probably if a pianist plays according to the directions in the score, and avoids the temptation of trying to add a sense of inevitability, of climax, then the shifts in texture and volume by themselves will do the trick.
Of course, you must be a pretty capable pianist, as I've never felt that any Debussy was easy, except for a few very early works.
@PianogrlNW