Thank you so much for the feedback! I've fine-tuned the player controller and "cat physics" a lot since then. "simultaneously sticky and wieldy" is honestly a perfect critique of the issues with the chargejump on build, although for what it's worth I personally found it MUCH easier to control with a gamepad than keyboard.
Like I said, I've improved it since then but I'm still considering either disabling chargejump entirely and just replacing it with a regular Mario style jump that maybe gets a little higher if you hold the jump button down longer or including a setting that does that.
I've gotten used to it so I don't have many issues with the controller, but I feel like some players will always hate it.