The comic has a ton of "because magic" too - that's sort of the point. It isn't a magic-as-technology story; it's mythology. The stakes seem unclear sometimes, but they're generally pretty high, at least for the people involved - there are people dying and being tortured left and right, and it's not like it just gets neatly undone or anything.

I think the adaptation does make some of the stakes less clear though. The Constantine episode rushes through it so fast it leaves out almost all of the stakes until the last moment (probably also to save on budget). In the comic, you keep seeing things from the woman in bed's perspective, and she's abusing the sand like a drug, which the show hints at, but the comic builds up to it by showing her dreaming. And when Morpheus and Constantine show up, they have to deal with the fact that the house is half-dream, with gross, fleshy walls, and Morpheus literally describes the sakes to Constantine - that they are in tremendous danger due to the dreams bleeding through.

Also, I think the "battle" was the worst part of the adaptation. I had a feeling they were going to do something like this, but it makes so much more sense in the comic. In the comic, Lucifer doesn't take over. Instead, Choronzon gets to choose the venue, and he chooses a ridiculous nightclub filled with demons. They're literally holding microphones, as if it's a sort of slam-poetry competition (Dream lampshades how ridiculous this is). They are clearly playing a very old spoken-word game. And there's none of that nonsense of the attacks visibly injuring each other - it's just a verbal game. There are simply-drawn shapes illustrating what they're saying, and it appears that they must be visible since Morpheus shades his eyes against the nova, and Morpheus's internal monologue describes feeling some of it (probably because he's the personification of imagination), but visibly they're just standing at microphones, cool and collected. And crucially, Morpheus isn't on his back foot at all - he's strategizing, and he planned the entire exchange leading up to "hope", which he says with his arms crossed, not sprawled on the floor.

And the adaptation cheapens Lucifer too. Great casting and acting, but the character seems a lot more mortal and petty. In the comic, they're basically uninterested in the whole thing. They don't even rule hell anymore - Morpheus is surprised to discover that hell is now ruled by a triumvirate. And they just casually bring forth all the demons so Morpheus can find the one - none of this "there are rules" or anything like that. They casually send Choronzon to be tortured by Agony and Ecstacy (and it is also important that Choronzon belongs to another member of the triumvirate, and begs that other duke of hell to help, but they are immediately deferential to Dream and Lucifer instead). And Lucifer's whole "did you really think we would let you leave?" gotcha at the end is actually surprising because it comes out of nowhere - we haven't seen any antagonism or even interest from Lucifer before that. And again Dream addresses all the demons (not just Lucifer, basically cutting Lucifer down in front of all the demons), and casually walks out. The whole thing is supposed to be Dream getting his mojo back: he's confident, assured, he handles Chorozon deftly and then even Lucifer.