Wow, so much to unpack here. Thanks so much for in-depth. The bomb is one of those "happy accidents" of brainstorming. We initially had a simble ball-chain in mind, but then we realized that there was nothing encouraging catching the ball (and thus less player interaction). Then someone asked "it could be a bomb?" and here we are.
Going through your single points
1. Yes, checkpoint system is def. we'll probably add in a future version (or shorter levels and less glitchy physics...)
2. Totally with you there. I think at the time we liked the comedic moment but yeah ... it's not great. Might just have the bomb start in the air so you auto-catch it. Great points about first language and kids. I think we'll add more pictures explaining what you can/should do. The text was sort of a last-minute solution.
3. Great idea!
4. We figured it's to pronounce the strong one's role, as otherwise tall does most of the fun stuff while the smaller one is just occasionally important. Maybe we should prevent tall to move with the bomb at all? That way the mechanic is more pronounced. But then there's the throw-catch method to circumvent the mechanic... Yeah, we'll have to think about it.
5. The yank's more of a recovery than anything else. We'll have to figure out what to do with it. We've improved the chains already and will probably work on it later. They caused a lot of headache during development.
6. Not much to add, will be fixed :)
Thanks so much again, that was really good criticism.