For Acts 1 and 2, the branching paths available are more so relatively simple "this or that" kind of choices and that's deliberate. Act 3 onward is where the story definitely allows for more interesting divergence of paths and more player agency. I see where you're coming from especially with the Pad my Boots task but the choice was the book itself because each book already gives you separate upgrades. You get the individual bonuses from each book after you Decipher Spellbook and then do an optional task related to each book. Anyway, glad that you played it even if it wasn't quite what you were interested in. The core loop may change somewhat in the future, but how it plays now is almost certainly very close to how it will play when everything is complete.