It's understandable that projects, especially in game development, evolve rapidly, leading to shifts in focus and scope. It's commendable that you're maintaining a focus on quality over quantity, especially in terms of level design. Facing new challenges head-on, like player visibility and combat flow, is a crucial part of the design process that often goes unnoticed but is essential for creating engaging and balanced gameplay.
Given your experience with these unique design challenges, have you found any strategies or tools particularly helpful in navigating them? Also, in terms of simplifying mechanics for scope, how are you ensuring that these changes don't dilute the core experience you're aiming to provide players? It might be beneficial to gather early feedback on these adjustments during your final round of playtests to see how they're affecting the overall player experience.
Reducing the scope of your level to maintain quality is a wise decision. It's better to have a polished, engaging section of the game that players can fully enjoy rather than spreading resources too thin. Do you plan to revisit the cut sections in the future, perhaps as additional content or in a sequel, should the opportunity arise?
Keep pushing forward with your work. Navigating these challenges is part of what makes game development so rewarding in the end.