"Yes, you did. And I was as polite as possible in my reply... But then you doubled down on the condescension in your second reply, so now the gloves are off."
Lol, what is this. Keep them on, this reads like the start of the Navy Seals copypasta.
IMO the early game is quite challenging in a sense because it requires you to take a specific action to get through that is entirely optional in most other management / tycoon games: Taking a loan. I've had my problems with it because it's not intuitive but once you know it's not all that tough anymore.
It was quite fun and very rewarding (for me at least) to find out what works and what doesn't though. What can I do better next game, that sort of stuff, so I'm not really sure what to think about an easier early game. It's actually refreshing to see a management game that doesn't make you auto-succeed over time. Perhaps what is needed isn't "easier" but "more options"? I could see an alternative working where certain events or oppurtunities replace the need to take a loan but come with other trade-offs down the line. ("Remember when we sponsored you back then? Yeah, your famous idol belongs to us now" ... or something like that)