Hi!
Sorry to hear you didnt like it :(
As for not saving the progress - you probably played an older version as from the latest version (1.4 and 1.41) the game now saves your latest checkpoint.
I cant really speak to the other game you mention, but I think 5$ is a fair price given that the game has a wide variety of graphics, individual levels that are all unique both in terms of graphics and gameplay - but yeah its all very individual.