Thank you for playing and for the really constructive feedback!
For points 1 and 2, we were planning on implementing a map and some "non-interactable doodads" to help guide the player, but I ran out of time and didn't get to implement them. I def agree though!
For point 3, we also had planned some kind of "lore book" that collecting the CDs would add a piece of lore to your notebook/codex that you could read to get that DEEP LORE. But again, I ran out of time and couldn't finish it.
Thanks again for the great feedback!