True! It's quite tough to do, so congrats for being able to do it! Most of the levels are designed in a way so that going straight up infinitely can't actually be used to skip too much. There are definitely a ton of shortcuts to explore though!
its pretty easy with arrow assist on. you just need to recall the arrow at the same time as your jump and then shoot it back down at the apex of said jump, then freeze it as quickly as possible. it is a little bit hard the first time but as long as you get the timing down once it is very easily repeatable. the thing that's impressive, I think, is the fact that I figured it out in the web browser of a Chromebook while the game was running at a very inconsistent fps.(it fluctuated between around 20 fps and around 10)