I'm glad you picked up on the exploration aspect reminiscent of "vania" games. When navigating new sections of the map, the intention was for players to embark on a random search, allowing their mental map to expand. During the map and puzzle design phase, I spent quite some time ensuring that players couldn't get stuck in some infinite loop.
About the controls and the UI bug, I must admit it was a bit of a last-minute attempt. Given that the UI is my least favorite part to work on. I tried to do something as you're suggesting, like embedding hints into artifacts in an interesting way. However, I wasn't sure how to do it specifically.
Thank you for playing and for the kind review; I'm happy the game brought you some joy, we're all in this together.