Too much urgency doesn't work, because we're given so many side quests in just Act 1 to complete. So the game gives us a very early conversation in camp that explains we are not following the normal infection schedule with the tadpole.
There are also hints that we're being groomed for a higher purpose involving the tadpole, and not just the usual transformation. Which is another way of shutting down the timer.
In my first playthrough I never got that conversation in camp about the lack of tadpole urgency. I'm guessing this had something to do with me not long resting until after entering the grove, where its flag was overwritten by a different camp cutscene flag (Rahpael maybe, similar to OP?).
This led to me continuing to think I was on a tight schedule, and thus adventuring for as a long as I could without long resting, which led to even later camp cutscenes....you get the idea. Overall, yeah, I definitely agree that the long rest cinematics need better pacing. A mix of guaranteeing certain cinematics happen and setting/checking more flags to ensure cinematics and conversations don't reference things that haven't happened yet.
