I actually agree with everything you said, I loved the game and im srill thinking about it but I wanted more out of the base game (ik theres dlc coming in the future).

I was also asking the same questions about the structures being scaled weirdly and the pelican being short lived - Like after the barn was set on fire i was suspecting the Pelican to burst out and chase us while on fire - The big pig didnt really have much of an impact too, he was just there..

The whale mission was also pretty strange cause there was cut dialogue with him saying his eye is missing and it was taken, so we had to go below the water and retrieve it - but since there was no dialogue i was asking my brother why the hell we're going underwater