maybe a different direction might have been, to choose a new different type of mechanic to work with like ice sliding, block swapping or a block trail. If you find the mechanics hard to work with finding new ones to work with might help. The new mechanics you decided to implement were quite similar to the old ones so they would probably have their same problems too. If you find mechanics in the future difficult to work with this might help you a bit.
Personally I think I would look into a different type of layout design for these mechanics maybe cramped spaces and cloners just make the space more cramped when you use them or the player is not just moving a block into position has to move themselves to end point to push a block as well. The majority of layouts at the moment is getting the amount of blocks you need and placing them in a section and that can easily end badly if your not careful because of the amount you have to move.