My favourite tutorials are the gameplay-integrated ones; introductory settings where mechanics are unlocked one by one. Though these can be tedious on the second playthrough. I think what you did here works but I do agree it could have been more obvious that you had to move the battery.
Ending up with audio sliding into truly bad territory is definitely something that can happen. I think it's pretty hard in general to hit "so bad it's good" with audio versus ending up with something either just bad or just okay. Turning off your audience is definitely a risk; I remember advice from an old filmmaking website that's stuck to me to this day: your audience will tolerate crappy video but not crappy audio. At the time they recommended equipment costing hundreds to thousands of dollars; fortunately technology has advanced to the point where even smartphone and headset audio is at least tolerable.