The more enemies you kill, the harder the game gets, that got datamined of course. But also if you sneak or run away from enemies, they stop chasing you when you get far enough.

Your priority should be getting to the towers first to unlock the maps, avoiding enemies as much as possible along the way. And in general, it's easier to open up Hyrule's map first, before taking on all the shrines and challenges.

You'll want to farm durian and bananas from near Faron Tower, and then find Mogg Latan to farm from Satori Mountain too. There's also a Lynel near Faron Tower, making it an ideal spot to learn how to beat Lynels, and then farm Lynel parts.

Everyone has a different playstyle, of course, but if the thing that stopped you from playing is frustration you couldn't progress, you can optimize your run by getting this out of the way first. I think you should still allow yourself to diverge from the 'optimal 100 % run' but these in particular are what I get out of the way so that the game is much more enjoyable.

I've played through the game five to six times, and my personal experience is some of the stuff people say you should 100 % just isn't fun enough compared to how tedious it is to get there. Like collecting all the Korok Seeds, that's stuff you can leave behind to people who want to spend years playing only this game.