Let me start off by saying all of this is super helpful valid criticism and for that I thank you! :D
Unfortunately when you don’t have anyone play testing your game, you can fall into some weird decisions regarding your game including control layouts. I have super long fingers so this is attributed to my wild control layout for the keyboard. What also might have caused me to overlook it is that I was using an Xbox controller for most of my play testing after I set up the control bindings. You are 100 percent correct about the dialog for save points not needing their own dialog boxes. I am thinking of just replacing it with a small animation where the shrine lights up and a save icon in the upper right corner flashing. I was going to have the player gain the ability to regain health after a short channel when you defeat the first boss but I would also consider giving it to the player right off the bat to hopefully make the game easier. I just want to make sure the game has some “Good Bones” before I end up fully implementing the story. I do require the experience of working on a long term project so I plan to try and do updates and a dev log each month.
I vastly appreciate the feedback and criticism that you provided, Thank you!