It took me a while to understand why some spheres would warp me and others would damage me and whether or not I could change that and how. I also wasted quite some time firing on the bubbles containing red and white spheres in the middle of the loops, and they did light up, but I don't think it ever did anything...? There was a golden sphere at some point that dissolved when I went through it and later reformed but it wasn't one of the gold warps or the gold targets you can fire on (which all look somewhat similar but serve vastly different purposes). Speaking of the gold warps, I initially assumed they would warp me to different places according to which side I came from (because all other warps point to their unique destination but those have two trails coming out of the center). The enemies I quickly understood haha (same with those with shields).
I suspect all those symbols would benefit from having a clear visual language (both shapes and colors) you could learn to quickly get an idea of what they do (eg: spiky red-ish symbols are always dangerous, bright/golden lozenges could be stuff to collect or interact with, blue-ish spheres for warps, stuff like that).
I did activate one of the beacons but I don't really know what it did. I assumed I would find another one in the second level and would understand more about their purpose then. So in that case the mystery worked as intended.
And aim assist would be a great addition, yes!