Fwiw I share your comments pretty closely, just finished it myself a few weeks ago. Navigating the map was unbelievably tedious especially with random trash mob spawns whenever you took a wrong turn. I also found myself totally apathetic about the side missions or random task missions and just focused main story the whole time. It took me a long time to finish for those reasons but did really enjoy the plot. Gameplay I just built myself into a rock chucker like you and ignored all guns. Certainly a very neat concept, just wanted waaaaay more map help. Hardest part for me was the theme song bit through the shifting map thing (maybe that’s what you were referring to?) But enjoyed the music there so was alright with all my deaths. Rest was easier by comparison
And you can make those chumps work slave hours and literally meat cleave them if they displease you. Theoretically you can be an ethical trainer instead i guess, I wouldn’t know