Yep, all of those reports (minus the lore comment, thank you!) are things I should and will work on. Presently, the game just does almost next-to-nothing to explain itself. Clear design just isn't enough when it comes to 'and defend yourself or die!' haha. Sadly, combat's still just a placeholder. I'm in kind of the same situation as Sunless Sea was on launch where I've got a placeholder system in there for now and it's not great but it's giving me time to think of something better.
Suggestions on that front are welcome of course. When you say 'let me click through it' I assume you mean that if you click the text should stop fading in and instead instantly complete fading in?