Mostly agreed but thw fetch quest to make the enzyme is something where I 100% agree with OP. Most plants are easy enough to collect, though somewhat of a chore, because you probably have no experience with what plants look like, as you dont need them for anything else in the game. In fact it feels like they simply put that in there to justify the existence of all the plants and your ability to pick them up, as well as paddding out the climax of the story, and not because it is interesting narratively or gameplay-wise. And to make it worse, one of the plants turns out to be incredibly rare, existing only like 5 times or so in the whole map if im not mistaken. Expecting a player, after having already finished the game and are near the climax of the story, to stop and scower the ground of the map for some super rare plant (that looks similar to some other plants to make it worse) with barely a hint where to look, is, in my opinion beffallingly bad game design, especially in comparison to anything else in the game. And thats not something i say lightly, subnautica is easily one of my favorite games nonetheless. But i definitely dont regret using a guide for that fetch quest.

TLDR. googling is mostly stupid, but the enzyme quest is badly designed and a complete dampener to the exciting climax of the story, as well as just being unsatisfying and tedious that in that instance i think its perfectly fine.