Act 1 is most definitely convoluted but it is not nearly as confusing and simply purposeless than act 2. You are not given a direct purpose, you just kinda wade through the forest because you are done in cyseal. Maybe that is your point with "no handholding" but to me this is bad writing. Good writing gives you a purpose, and lets you figure out things in-between.
And let me tell you, but if you don't free the white witch as first thing, then NOTHING in act 2 and act3 makes any sense at all. Now that's not the bad thing, the bad thing is that you are not given proper purpose to free her. Instead that's told to you as a "thing you may wanna do at some point" like washing behind the ears, or picking up mushrooms.
