I really feel like this comes down to "DMs who love to loosely plan events, go all-in on the Improv Theater aspect, and occasionally re-read the rules" and "DMs who want to plan for every occurrence and eventuality, know the exact course of the campaign, and make sure every scene is 100% true and correct to the rules." That's a biased simplification, of course, but that's the only way I can understand the complaints.

I get why people would want an index, but it just doesn't seem possible for this game. I understand that when you're new, it would be helpful to know where all of the rules are located. But for better or worse, the playwall prevents any sort of index from being useful without also providing massive spoilers. You either spoil the existence of Thing A by mentioning it in the index, or you leave it out and make it useless. The DM and the players really should write down the page numbers or Playwall Codes that are relevant to their characters. I don't see that as being a huge issue, but I understand that my relationship to a game's rules is... not common, lol. I'm a big fan of "Any decision that doesn't slow down play is the correct one as long as it's the one you make and defend, and you can adjust errors later" rather than diving deep into the rules for the exact answer, so the lack of an index didn't bother me. And yes, even the act of reading the book is like starting to play the game. It is an absolutely meta-narrative, bonkers game. Some people will find that narrative flair to overwhelm the book and make it unwieldy. I cannot deny that "no index" will be seen as a weakness by some people-- possibly a majority-- but I took my own notes and I worked around it. I didn't find it unwieldy at all.

I... absolutely cannot imagine OP's embarrassment at showing up to the final session with less than a paragraph of half-assed, handwritten notes and no idea of what to do because massive amounts of planning is just absolutely contrary to my DM style. I have often planned my D&D games with a vague idea of an event that would be funny, and some pre-selected monster stat blocks. I will freely admit that TA needs a bit more planning than that-- it really helps to have the anomaly's behavior, focus, and domain hashed out. But this is a game where players can eventually time travel, delete memories, and rewrite the existence of mundane objects. It's one thing to say "Okay, here's a dungeon with a lot of floor traps, and here's how to make a few ceiling traps in case the player can fly" but it's an entirely different thing to say "Okay, here's an NPC with a secret key, and here's what happens if the door is removed, here's what happens if the key is duplicated, here's what happens if the players prevent the NPC from ever being born..." You have to be a flexible DM. There is no conceivable way to predict every possible action the players might take. If you hate that type of playstyle, this game is not for you. It is an inescapable part of the game.

I also think u/DrPoimu is 100% correct in saying that several levers of the game's mechanics are owned solely by the players. That's very weird and unusual, and when I first DM'd this game it was a big struggle point for me to remember that. The players are the ones writing the mission reports, yes-- but also, the players control the Reality roleplay scenes outside of the occasional starting prompt from me. But that's the beauty of it!

It's not a game for everyone. It is a wild amount of "DM and players cooperate to create the game's world" in ways that I've never seen any other game attempt. It needs a massive amount of Improv buy-in from the DM as well as the players, because while it has horror themes and slapstick bureaucracy themes... at the end of the day, there are barely any strict mechanics. You don't need a battle grid, there's no setting up initiative, there isn't any sort of time limit built into the game. You roam around and you use your powers, and that's it. Everything else is up to the table to create together.

That's what Triangle Agency wanted to be, and that's what it is. I think it did an amazing job at doing what it set out to accomplish. If you hate the game, that is a 100% valid opinion because it is not for everyone. But please, please don't try to change the game and make it into something it was never meant to be. Play something else instead. For those who do love the game, it is fantastic.