That makes a lot of sense, and I can see how each one of those decisions makes sense in the context of being tight on time and not having enough external playtesters from outside the dev team! And like I said, it's not that all of the things were major problems on their own, it's just that all of them together were overwhelming.
Thanks for taking the time to answer as well! I'd like to think we're all here to improve our craft, and going into such detail on the why's behind your ideas does help!