I didn't play the game that much yet, but one thing that makes a bad first impression for me at least is the "tutorial". Since the first thing you see when starting your first new hive is literally a bunch of controls with a little long explanation for it, I feel overwhelmed with information and a step by step of who the controls work basically would be way easier to follow up. Also, the fact than when you start a new hive, all the option of how to configure it shows up even if it's the first time you play is kinda weird since you literally can't know what the options do.
Horses for courses! I've had new players say they appreciate knowing that there are options that they can come back to fiddle with if things aren't working for them, but it's normal for one solution to not be a good fit for everyone and it's OK to not appreciate the way that Hive Time does things. Sorry to hear that you haven't had a pleasant experience!
I find that step-by-step controls tutorials introduce gratuitous gating that I don't think is a good fit for this style of game, but I'll have a think about whether an optional detailed controls tutorial makes sense. The first tutorial's main purpose is to prime players to later think, "Oh yeah, that first tutorial mentioned a repeat shortcut - I should check in the Controls Settings menu to see what that was," rather than to have players memorise all four of the buttons that the tutorial talks about.
In case knowing makes things feel less overwhelming, you can revisit past tutorials at any time in the Beepedia (the left icon in at the bottom of the screen). You can also find out a bit more about each "Find Your Own Fun" option on the New Game menu by hovering the mouse over it, though they all have more context once you've played a little.
If it's a better fit for you, you can disable tutorials entirely from the New Game menu (which will unlock all tutorials in the Beepedia) and explore/discover things as you play - that's how I designed the game to be played from the beginning. The tutorial and research tree are mostly there to help make the game more accessible to people outside of its core audience or who aren't interested in the kind of self-directed experience that Hive Time is intended to be.
Hope some of that helps!