Ah, true. In relation to the story then that choice on the planets makes sense. Always found it a hard balance between what the story demands, and what feels best game-play wise. A middle option would then to instead have visual clues as part of the environment or dialog that at-least hint on where to go (I don't think you had that already? Or I just missed it). However, as I mentioned, I actually never did get completely lost while playing, so it could be said that the levels are already well designed already :)
Also, was diffidently a good choice to have extra crystals to gather, definitely had your desired effect. Always nice to get rewarded for exploring and making it a complete waste going the "wrong" way.