You make some good points about potential trust issues, but I have some counterpoints. Firstly, the reason a lot of people see the creche as the first solution is that it's a solutioin presented by literally the first npc you meet, who as far as we're presented, is a character who will have a lot of expertise on the matter. Shadowheart doesn't trust her, but I don't believe she ever gives a good reason why. It always struck me as some kind of personal grudge more than anything. And also, Shadowheart doesn't really have her own solution. She just says to find a healer, which is generic as can be, and her dislike of LZ does make her a non-biased source. I didn't even stick around the grove on my first playthrough. I was playing an evil character who had no interest in anything but getting rid of the tadpole, and LZ was offering a definite potential solution as opposed to a vague "find someone who can help." So I went right to the patrol and got bodied. Only after I reloaded once or twice more did I decide to go back and do the grove stuff.
So yeah, to me LZ knew what she was talking about and Shadowheart didn't. I also rested as little as possible throughout my first playthrough and it wasn't until my second that I really absorbed that there wasn't actually an internal timer. I do agree with you about it making sense the gith are difficult, but it's still a massive difficulty spike compared to the rest of the area. It's something I'm convinced I would just never be able to win. And considering it's part of a companion quest and not some sort of bonus boss like the spider, that's weird.
