1) Absolutely, and that was exactly the importance i was conveying in the image comparison, maybe i should of put it in bugs 😅, but yeah, the left screen shot is E2M1 were the Green key is located, and it has no green pad under it, iv checked to see if every other card has one, (in EP1-2 only) and they do, i should of put 1) it in the bugs section my bad 😵 (il make sure to keep a eye out in the further EP's today.
2) with the lvl start, i am not sure if you have played the recent game cultic, but most of the time each lvl select spawns you with the what type of load out you might have at that point in time (with a optional melee only load out start button), in terms of progression, but considering alot of the guns are pretty much all given to the player so quickly, i can see what you mean at how difficult it is to gauge, which is why on my first EP1 play, i felt like a lot of the guns were given to the player way to soon, you pretty much get everything almost in E1M1, which is totally fine if that is how you want it, i just feel like the main take away for me is not really about segregating the attachments to bosses per say, but more so a sense of lacking progression with your arsenal. With the bloop gun for example, that was presented to the player in such a cathartic and meaningful way, as well as it being unmissable, then ofc any map after can have that gun as a secret to be found or just around in the lvl anyway, half life 1 has plenty of guns that you did not really have to pick up so to speak, so that them being non mandatory is not a issue. Its mainly just the When you get most of your load-out, and How quickly you acquire everything that feels distributed prematurely.
Also for the record, you have tons of bravado, you are kicking ass dude! don't sell your self short!