i tried it, but got stuck a few times and quite frankly wasn't really pulled in by the game. so i quit it but have it on my list to play again down the line.
it was the game that taught me i was terrible at figuring out puzzles, because it was supposed to be easy, but i got stuck in the same places you did Dan. so at least i know im not totally dumb.
so yeah there were some odd design choices. (in my opinion of course)
Spoiler:the whole dog meat thing was pretty tough. i couldn't place it in one car that didn't work. why would it work in the blue car of all cars. and i needed a guide for it because after trying it once i didn't think that was going to ever work.
same thing with hiding police, i thought that might be the solution, but didn;t find that exact place right in the corner the first time (still found a highly shadowed place, when it didn't work, yet again i ruled it out.)
but as i said,i put it back on a long list. so in a year or so when i try it again and have (probably) forgotten most things, hopefully i will be better at puzzles and it should be more fun.