Thanks for the totally fair review! (it's SO rough, but I decided that I was going to submit no matter how well put together the end result was going to be, too many jams beforehand where I didn't submit. So while there many bugs that would even have been easily solved, It was better for me to post this as it was I think then to drop out)
While technically there actually is an indication of how many info cards you have BUT that's only mentioned (if I remember correctly) when going to the portal too soon... You're right that it wasn't clear. The player should be told that getting those is the goal and that they actually received them. And the rest of the game suffered from a similar lack of communication.
The future 'definitive edition' will certainly address all issues in some fashion.