...I'm going to be quite honest, I just think you-and those agreeing with you- have different preferences that the game never said it would cater to. the prologue with the mc as an adult was never meant to be the only version of the mc you play as, nor did the game ever state that was to be expected.
the reason you flash back in time to play as a child is to grow more entrenched in the world and to build up to the mystery of what will happen in the future, the events mc is reacting to in the prologue. *that* is what the game is building up to- and the reason the mc is an adult in the prologue- not for you to be an edgy 30 year old or wtv in the countryside.
and the story is barely even past the second chapter yet- you don't even know half of the plot, much less the reason why mc was so miserable in the first place. you're meant to experience it along with the protag. you're creating ideas of what's more 'interesting' based off of some tepid idea of what the adult plotline would be like rather than an actual analysis of the existing content so far in the story.
it just doesn't seem like you enjoy playing games that have childhood sections. that's not a moral failing, but to be quite honest, your 'criticism' of the story and assertion that it has lost potential is nonsensical. you, aemonisbck, and masoada, just do not like this genre of game. and as a result, you've made judgements and evaluations that are entirely nonsensical and reaching for something to critique, when your dislike is purely subject to what you enjoy in if, not to any actual fault in the writing.