1. Completely agree, Had scaling enemies for 2 versions and things got frustrating for no good reason so I removed that, now they are manually balanced but don't scale so the moment you are even a bit over-leveled it's easy mode.
That said, I'm scrapping the entire combat system after the first sidejob is done and making it purely let's say...player skill-based. That should fix the constant need to curbstomp the use of skills/equipment/resting/items to maintain any semblance of difficulty.
2. Gonna look into getting a solution for that.
3. You can click the HUD thingy to close it full-stop, however increasing the distance by a few tiles is a good idea.
4. That's more of a play on Saria's personality, she's smug and confident until she starts to uhh...get in trouble.