I'm sorry you're not enjoying the struggle system, I need to clarify though that the struggle system has an internal cooldown by design, it forces Max to take a minimum set of damage on getting grabbed, and it's also to keep people from going bazonker crazy on the tapping, losing the actual focus of the game: enjoying the animations. So it's not broken or forgetting your inputs, it's just that you're limited to the speed of the cooldown.
At least that was the goal, but you're not the first to criticize the struggling, so we might have to make it more clear, or rework the struggle system a bit in the future. It is not perfect.
With a little practice you should be able to tap to the speed of the cooldown. If you learn the rhythm of the struggles, you'll see that it is pretty doable to get out of most grabs, without having to spam like crazy, just follow the proper rhythm while enjoying/watching the animation. It's meant to be a relaxing ride, not a skill check to see how hard you can tap the keys.
The enemy in level 2 is a bit confusing, but the idea is to wait for her to (almost) finish the summon spell, and then jump right before the spell is completed. I agree though that it is not very clear what to do, and the visuals are confusing. I worked on level 2 many years ago, I might have to revisit that particular enemy as well.
I hope the information I've provided helps though!