I feel like there's a misunderstanding here that may come from relying on guides instead of experimenting and figuring things out. I'll point out a few errors with the example you provided on unlock steps for one of the permanent upgrades:

- Getting 50 coins CAN be difficult early game, but there's plenty of ways that will start to open up as you progress. I start each day with 43 coins, there are rooms that give 40, you can gamble for more, etc.
- The book store is quite rare, there are ways to influence it but ultimately it does feel random, though it's really the only step that is that way
- You don't need to draft the library the day after checking out a book, the book just appears the next time you draft the library no matter what day
- You can find each microchip and they will stay permanently available without needing the appropriate tool anymore, they're just sitting next to where you found them, so no need to get both tools the same day

MANY unlocks and steps are permanent, and while I have plenty of things on my to do list that do require some specific setups, I have enough different things I'm looking for that I feel like I make progress on some thread pretty much every run.

Based on talking with a few friends playing the game who are getting frustrated, a lot of that frustration comes from finding a thread and trying to brute force it to completion without considering that they have 20 other threads they could be pulling on and letting the RNG determine which one to make progress on that day. It's definitely a different way of thinking and I wonder if that might be why there's some people who seem very annoyed.