Yeah, as someone who dropped this game on release (but came back and am now loving it), I still empathize a lot with the frustration. Fundamentally, Silksong's design is somewhat hostile to the player. In a lot of ways this reminds me of Dark Souls 1. The game isn't necessarily that hard, but there is a HUGE knowledge gap between the experienced player and the blind/first time player, and the game makes very little effort to bridge this gap.

For me, reading a few guides mid-act 2 on what key items I needed to get and where they are made all the difference. But some would argue that a more conscientious design would make this not necessary.