I respectfully disagree with you, the story is linear enough even in hard mode to not lose anything, of course if you follow the dialogues and play it correctly, and with the correct amount of attention and the save slots helps a lot too if you are in a maze.
I was able to do almost everything in my first attempt even without the wt, and the hearts especially weren't the part that gave me issues to be honest, I've had more problems in finishing the task for the secret chambers than that.
Anyway this discussion went way over the necessary imho, so I consider it closed, I don't think I will be able to give anything more productive or helpful in continuing it so for me it's closed.