Thank you very much for the feedback
In terms of having the challenging aspect buffed up a bit, it is something we considered; but we wanted players to experience more of the story than the shrine activity, so we tried to reduce the effort it'll take to garner the souls. But yes, it will definitely be worth the shot increasing the challenge a bit more to make it more fun. You are definitely spot on about the shaky shop UI too.
Yep, spending souls can unlock different dialogues, so picking to whom you spent them on is a decision we wanted our players to deliberate on. We're glad that's being the case.
Yes, we did originally plan to make storytelling the key aspect to this game, and the platformer was to give the players a quick and short break from reading too much. Think of it like...brewing coffee in coffee talk, or mixing drinks in VA-11 HALL-A. So we didn't want to make it too difficult, but yes, it might've been too easy in the end. We will take your feedback into consideration definitely.