[2021] Game design

So ive been playing this game for like 3 days and I've gotten to the point in the story where there's this war going on, invasion or some stuff idk. The thing that has annoyed me the most this far is the fact that ive been locked out of the first two maps for the past like, 20 temtem levels (they are ~level 43)? Now this is infuriating because of two reasons: 1. Inability to use the breeder: I wanna get Myx, Mushook, etc and use them for the main story. But guess what, u can only get their first form at ~level 30ish, therefore their evolutions will only become available at, what, level 50 or more? And im pretty sure thats very near the end of the game. This, combined with the fact that i just wanna breed some really quick to get at least mostly green SVs, so i dont get 1shot by a random tamer. 2. Can't get Coward's Cloak (or w/e its called) since i didnt know i could get it that early in the game and now i have to switch in/out to level up temtems, which sucks. I saw a youtube review from a dude before I bought the game and he was praising the fact that the game IS NOT LINEAR. Now, correct me if im wrong but I think this is the definition of linearity.

Tldr: locked out of first 2 maps, cant use breeder, cant get cowards cloak, annoyed af.

Lemme hear ur thoughts about this