Unfortunately I must admit that I share your thoughts. Not that I have conquered any bugs or crashes but the game is not very intuitive.
When my charakter died due to the steam, I was able to move the dog. I had to click on the left side of the screen to have it move to the right. And one time I moved it so close to the edge that I wasn't able anymore to steer it anyway. I also did not know what to do. I couldn't revive my charakter. But there was no Game Over screen either.
I restarted the game, surpassed this scene and came back to the screen with the boxes. I don't want to spoil the solution here but I just wanted to say: I had the right idea how to solve the situation but I didn't stick to the order the game wanted me to. But this order also didm't look necessary. I also could have solved it in my order. And that is really bad game design und shouldn't be an issue after all these years.
If I wouldn't know it better I would say this game looks a little bit rushed and could have experienced some more time and development. I will play it through and try to get some fun out of it but I can't reccommend it to someone else at this current state.
The good thnigs: The soundtrack is better than expected. The voice acting is also ok. I like the humor of the dialoges. I would have preffered a more classic look (pixelart like the old Sierra Games) but I also like the look of the game. Not that every scene blew me away but it is ok.
Would it be more intuitive it would be a much better game I guess.