I am sorry you felt that way, I'll admit that luck influences the early battles in particular, and yes, at that point in the story you can't yet buy potions, they will be available after the next chapter.
The game may be hard, but I personally made sure it could be completed even in Hell mode on more than one occasion.
If the random encounters bother you, know that the game contains a plugin which is literally called "anti player stress" which gives you the occasion to flee any random encounter with a 100% success rate.
Besides, in the part with Haydan, there are several things you should consider. Haydan gets whipped for two reasons: he's half naked, and that gives him a crappy defense parameter, meaning he receives tons of damage; as if that weren't enough, he receives double the damage from the fire mages, since in lore his magic is weak against fire magic; finally, Haydan doesn't tell the bandits to fuck off just because he wants to be funny or because it's in character for him, it's a subtle hint to the player that he should FLEE those random encounters, given potions can't be obtained at that point in the story and a hard battle is ahead, one which you'll want to save HP for. The whole point of Haydan's character is he doesn't rely on tactics, he jumps in battle, getting injured and dishing out damage. If you keep playing the game, you'll see that you usually play with him for 1v1s or when he's supported, which is where he works best. There are also cases in which such way of playing him changes, but that goes for every character, especially when the battles happen in the story. Those random encounters? They're a bad matchup gameplay wise for the reasons I listed.
As for the comments, I assure you they aren't fake. I understand that given your experience, you find them hard to believe, and it's true they lack details that could leave you doubtful, but if that's the case I suggest you hop on Gamejolt and see the comments I received there, maybe those will be more convincing.