I can see your point and agree on some parts but i hope you agree that this is a step-up from the classic visual novels but, of course, this is the point of view of someone who usually stayed away from visual novel for the lack of decision and action.
But i agree this act is going pretty slow but is understandable since is experimenting, maybe this section is too big, looking at the map the creator planned a lot of different fight, and make all those is delaing the story progression.
Anyway mix some action and strategy with the eroge genre, for me, is a selling point wich differentiate the game from thousands of other identical ones.