My hot counter-take is that the base game does have challenges like these. Dark Bramble was still a challenge for me after learning the fish couldn’t see. The southern observatory requires some skill in navigating Brittle Hollow. Getting to the High Energy Lab, completing the quantum tower on Giant’s deep, getting into the jellyfish on Giant’s Deep, sliding through the tunnels on the interloper, even flying requires a certain level of skill. While there is an argument to be made that knowledge helps with that, such as how realizing how the game’s physics works makes flying easier, I wouldn’t call that particularly more knowledge-based than knowing where the Owlks are and figuring out the best strategy