I think you balanced the work-play aspects really well! My exact thought when finding hints and quality-of-life stuff was "this game wants you to finish it", and it was very rewarding when I did. I also think it's great that you made time to improve those aspects based on feedback, especially considering how packed with content the game is; that's a lot of work for a relatively short time frame.
Sorry for all the gushing but I really had a blast playing, haha. And thanks again for playing my game too!