After loving the game for the first couple of areas, then going through a really frustrating patch for a few hours that was sucking the joy out of the game, I'm back to really enjoying it thankfully.
I was just unlucky in my exploration during that section, unknowingly choosing difficult and fairly distant areas with not many seats or stations. But have gained some new abilities, discovered more areas, and feeling more motivated and confident in exploring further. The openness of the game does seem like a bit of a two edged sword, where if you unknowingly choose the 'wrong' routes, missing important things like maps, stations, new abilities, etc, you really make it harder and it doesn't feel like interesting exploration so much as stumbling around in the dark with no reward. Thankfully I pushed through and enjoying it much more now.
The Crystal Peak area was awesome, loved it. Now looking around some of the deeper sections. Definitely need to upgrade my nail a second time though, trying to fight a boss down there and he's not too difficult, he's just got so much health and I mustn't be doing that much damage. I can't avoid damage forever, so I eventually die.