Yeah, I was EXTREMELY disappointed when I worked for hours to get an item in the first two dungeons to get Acacia not to murder me, just to learn it was all the potions I had been skipping. I DESPISE the PvE content in this game. The slimes and bats make me rage so hard because I just do NOT care and want to get past them. I went through the trouble of getting the game to generate plate mail armor for my character and 3 star weapons, it still felt awful getting around with the slows and confusion. All so I could interact with a character I couldn't actually interact with. I was not happy at all during the last patch and I admit that I am still salty about it. The whole experience was AWFUL. I will never do a dungeon again.
The slime range attacks should be negated/nullified if you have armor points over a certain amount IMO.
I really dislike how separated the gameplay itself is from the AI component. Even a Weapon/Armor crafting system that uses the LLM would be a step in the right direction.
Though, to be positive. I DO think that interact-able NPCs outside of town is a good idea overall.