Thanks for the detailed thoughts, and what you've written is totally fair!
I like creating hard games that require a (arguably excessive) amount of effort to beat. My testers are good at reining in this instinct by making me add difficulty settings (see: YAGS, Over The Moon), but the secret route in YAGS (and ZAGS) are where I reserve the right to keep my original fiendish designs.
If you're approaching Tom and Eva from the mindset of "I have to get Elliot's route", I understand why it would get annoying, fast. My intent was that players would explore the frat house and its characters for the sake of the story, without even knowing there was a route there, much like you'd befriend Adam in YAGS without realizing he was romancible.
Which is not to write off your concerns at all... I'll look into further simplifying the route on easy mode in the next build. Because while I want the route to be a puzzle, I don't want it to turn into a slog.
As far as the planner goes, you're actually the first negative feedback I've gotten about it, and that's really good to know! In YAGS there were a lot of week skips (especially toward the end) where you had very little control, and that seemed to confuse players. ZAGS attempted to make this a bit more customizable via the planner, but I absolutely understand if it's not your thing.
Unfortunately, I there's not much I can do about that piece, since it's pretty fundamental to how the game is designed, but I'm glad you feel you can mostly kick it out of the way in most of the routes, at least.
Sorry if this isn't quite the answer you wanted. I really do appreciate the feedback though. I think, in my mind, the secret route has always been more of a "bonus" than a thing players would need to hit, but I've also been bad at that since there are achievements and unlocks associated with it. But the fact that you relate enough to the characters to find this important does mean a lot to me. :)