It was the same for me until very recently. I completed the inventory puzzle part of the game but unless I had a copy of Your Sinclair with a map there was no way I could find the collectables. (I certainly didn't have the patience to click on every piece of scenery). I've recently started replaying the Spectrum Dizzy games on emulator and, with the help of the internet, actually completed Dizzy POTY and Magicland properly -- all collectables no cheating! I intend to upload both to Speedrun.com. Eventually I'll probably complete all of them and put them all on SRC. Or at least try -- Treasure Island and Spellbound will be challenging!
I've also played the PC recreations of the original games which can be downloaded from yolkfolk.com. Same Spectrum gfx but no colour clash, basically identical to the originals.