1. Yeah that's my fear, I'll lean into one direction later on.
2. I'll have a level/checkpoint select for future DDs so that people can check out stuff even if they can't beat the game.
3. There are games that have auto charging (e.g. Zexion) but personally that's just not the direction I want to go in, I'll tweak values so that it's not really necessary to use the charge shot and maybe later on there'll be parts with less emphasis on the platforming where it'll make more sense.
4. That's why that's the only part where I had to put text explaining it, still thinking on ways to improve it, but only being able to dash on the ground is an important part of the design (similarly to games like megaman x1/2 and dkc), an air dash would be a whole other thing imo.
Thank you for the feedback!