Every dev knows his game best, but I'll pressure you this time since you are in an hard spot:
The early game encounters are there to teach you how to use the moods and cards. It is a game that requires attentiveness to make combat easier but blowing through the enemies is quite possible. This is probably not something everyone will like
I went in full tutorial, exploring every room and picking up every chest (minus one protected by the red female ghost). combat is gets more difficult room by room. At grandma house I have bone ghost in north that does a double atk every turn and kills me in 3 turns; or south with fish ppl that have a waterfall atk that hits for nerarly half health. bone ghost can be escaped, fish ppl cannot. In these encounters I need 6-7 atks to win if I don't get a lucky crit. In the mist of this, I have not a recharge station. Items are limited and once they are gone they are done. So or your autoequip dosen't work as intended (Iclicked it after every pick up) or something else is wrong. Maybe the difference of power between some moods you choose from is fucked. I've not played fear & hunger, but I'm not new at jrpgs.
Clearing it without any grinding at all is not easy but it is completely doable if you take the time to prepare for encounters. Autosave in every area does make trial and error less punishing. This is a matter of taste and not right or wrong.
If you think your balance is fine, then your tutorials in my case have failed. I suggest you to see every streamer that has played your game, and check if everything is as it should be. Maybe my experience was just an unlucky one.