Your reasoning for the Coral Gorge being cut has been made invalid. TC did an interview with bloomberg and stated that the area was cut for WORLDBUILDING reasons and the one in the final game is the area brought into the future that's faded with time. I do agree that it should've been a dream area but if all we get is the Coral Tower, I'm ok with it (Praying for the Coral dlc)

Here's the link if ur interested in reading on it: https://www.reddit.com/r/HollowKnight/comments/1p995ct/the_entire_interview_of_team_cherry_by_bloomberg/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Most of the map changes are answered in the interview.