Thank you for the feedback! I'm happy you're enjoying the game.
1. Unfortunately, the crank rewind is the main gimmick for the game, so I have no plans to change that. Switching it to a button would waste a lot of the charm and would make some sections of the game too easy. I will lower the amount you need to rotate before you undo your position, hopefully that will help a bit.
2. Closing the dialogues completely with the B button is most likely impossible without modifying Pulp, the little engine the game is made with. But I'm happy to inform I've implemented a solution through which read messages do not appear again after restart - it will be available in the next build. Exiting the level and starting it again from the main menu puts back the messages, as a clean start.