kobajagrande Being unable to get a perfect result without a guide is precisely bad game design. One would be justified to expect to be able to get the perfect result in a game simply by being very good at the game, without guides or anything of the sort. It's not unrealistic at all, and actually pretty much all games work like this.
Let's consider this for a moment. Games give more or less rewards to players as a result of their mastery of the game mechanics. In Mario, you're being tested for your ability to make the right jumps. You can get a perfect result by being very good at jumping. In TLS however, you're being tested for your willingness to metagame. Since there's little to no disclosure of what the results of our choices will be, the choices aren't meaningful, and it can't test anything. To give an example, how are you supposed to guess that repairing the bridge will later make the Ari-Khan troups get there faster, since the characters don't tell you? (Simon doesn't ask anyone who could tell.) And investing for money without being given some outline of the expected returns is not only robbing us of meaningful decisions, it's also highly unrealistic. I mean, who would do that?
While the problem exists, it's another thing to say how much impact it's having. It's been said that this was especially true during the first few chapters. Like, maxing Aka to get a decent battle of Yhilin. But after that, this flaw gets less and less present. However, later there's the Impaler's death, which is very difficult to avoid without optimizing. So blind players get punished for not metagaming. Remember, what's being tested, what are they being punished for, what did they fail to excel at? And now it looks like we're getting the same problem for Trin. The game falling back on its own flaws, which were thought to be something of the past. This is an especially painful case, because as you pointed out, before that point not optimizing won't have a huge impact on the story, all things considered. But losing Trin? Now that's something else. It's being quite cruel to a whole class of players.
I reiterate that IMO Trin dying is absolutely fine in itself. Trin dying only in certain cases based on hidden variable bs is what rubs me the wrong way. I mean, if maxing her is so easy, why put the death option in the game at all?
I wonder how many people would keep playing on the same playthrough after that point. I know I wouldn't.