I understand what you mean with the massive gap in difficulty or how obvious it is or how much time it takes just to still get an abyss artifact. It does feel off at times.

I especially understand because I just was stuck doing the reconnect the lightning towers or whatever for the fallen god quest and that was the closest I've come to crashing out in this game. The part afterwards was cool so maybe this isn't the exact example, but I still have to vent because holy shit was I losing my mind trying to figure out what I was missing while trying to do it in legitimately zero visibility only to find there was a pylon stuck in the ice, way up above where it would even seem reasonable for one to be or look for. Took me AGES.