While you do have some good points, some others are essentially "the game didn't hold my hand, and didn't spoonfeed me every hint or tip the first time I ever played it."
Eight guys ineffectually throwing water on a boat while shouting "it'll take more than a a few buckets to save her" is probably enough of a clue that one more bucket isn't going to help. The tutorial dungeon gave another tip about the burning ship.
The Fabulous Five NPC is intentionally annoying. You're not supposed to like him. You can also just say "I'll take my leave" right away to stop talking to him.
A lot of your complaints about the combat are the result of you going out, finding it very difficult, and then continuing on in the exact same way for hours, repeatedly banging your head against the wall. If something isn't working, try something different.
this..all of this..
Sure some pointers could be there, but all in all it seems as if you are not having the reflex of thinking out of the box, searching the limits of the world manipulation..
Which probably comes due to a lot of non-free rpg's (i admitt, I had to die a bit before i started to think differently ^^)
