Ok, I think instead of wondering why the fuck I don't have access to half the options everyone else does -- especially since options seem to appear completely at random whenever Zorro feels like giving them to me -- I should just be asking what the goal of this game is. What am I meant to be doing? I know what I can do right now, but I have no idea if any of those things further the goal or not, because I'm really not sure what my goal is supposed to be. I have multiple quests that I can't complete but there's no indicator of what enables me to complete them.
What I've determined is that so far everything that is a choice is a game over and everything that allows you to progress is forced upon you with no choice. Now, since that would be fucking horrible game design, I'm guessing that's not actually the case and I'm just missing something major and/or the game is bugged.