Thanks for the feedback!
The original intention of the game was always to create a game where the player had to logically determine what the mechanics did - replicating the feeling of discovery and of research. The findings were to help with that - providing context clues for the player to determine mechanics that were made more obvious as they progressed.
I will, however, admit that there could have been a bit more guidance at the beginning - the aim was always for the game to focus on selling potions, however. A few features did have to be scrapped for time (a catalyst mechanic was reworked into the planetary bonus mechanic, which had a totally different concept, for example.), and unfortunately I underestimated how confusing the interface would be without context.
Thank you for playing!