The best way to work on that problem is to be able to set the settings of the hints you are getting. If you can adjust how much help the hints give you it would solve a lot. If you are stuck you could simply make the hints more explicit, so that you can solve the problem. I like it when Quests are difficult. It gives me the feeling of the Point & Click Adventures of old (Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island, etc.), but it would be nice to be able to progress by using the hints if I'm stuck for 2 hours without any progress (or even in the same room; in the end I did not find the perfect solution for the team building excercise).