You're doing fine, don't stress it. I think I understand a little of your vision and the madness behind the method and I, personally, applaud it. You actually want there to be a challenge and the player to feel the internal reward/dopamine hit/excitement of figuring out the next step. I think you should stick to your guns on that matter. I don't know why you chose to build the saves the way you did, but we all know exporting save is mostly intended to cheat the stats which defeats the purpose of part of the challenge so I am happy to see you stay firm, there. I like vague hints, myself, though I will admit some were a little too vague. This could be resolved a bit with a more fleshed out character profile about hobbies or the like that could lead us to at least the right place, and timing is left up to the player to figure out. That part isn't too hard when there is only so much time in the day and there are patterns to the npc's lives. I'm sure that part is intended to get more in-depth in the future, based on your work, so far.
A walkthough holding my hand as it leads me here and there is boring, and easily available cheats just make it too easy to give up and cheat... at least right now we gotta work for those cheats... a little bit. If, however, there were a patch, or separate html file with cheats and walkthrough available... or perhaps that's more work than necessary, you are the expert on that matter.
The more introductory quests to build stats and money a little easier early on is a good idea. Grinding for grindings sake isn't fun unless or until there is a healthy amount of throw away content to enjoy along the way so easing that a bit is probably for the best. But a good push in the right direction until the training wheels come off and the whole sandbox opens up is particularly good, especially to a new player.
I know there are limitations on your time and energy, but something I'd consider is fleshing out the time aspects. 15 minute intervals are reasonable, just throw a 15 minute skip time button next to the hour skip for a quality of life function. Then the ambitious one: lots more writing. Conversations. Not mandatory, necessarily, but a little back and forth options the learn more about the family (example). Various questions we can ask, different responses we could provide that could help flesh out pc personality and play style a little bit. I would even bury some quest hints in there but at most I'd give a small chance of getting stat boosts from these side bits. The main purposes would be to provide an additional method to pass the time, flesh out the supporting cast, and maybe provide subtle hints.
I think you're doing great, all things considered, and I wish you a fulfilling experience in this endeavor.