The Wild Beyond the Witchlight: Hither Playability Qs

My players just arrived in Hither, and I'm struggling with the vague and contradictory (and to me particidal) rules for the environment.

Hither "is a foreboding place, one where daylight never fully penetrates the dank mist that hangs over the land, and where cruel and mischievous bandits prey upon stranded and lost travelers."  Okay, how is that quantified?

- Scale?  The map of Prismeer's scale shows 8 miles, with approximately 6-7 more across the base of Hither, for a width of perhaps 15 miles.  The map of just Hither, on the other hand, has a scale that indicates 6 miles, with well more than enough space on either side for another scale indicator, a width of at least 20 miles.  Of course, both maps appear to use perspective (but are also trapezoidal?), so the scale presumable only applies directly at the bottom edge of the map?  I'm actually relatively fine with this, as distance and layout have little meaning in the Feywild, but why put a scale at all?  Heck, why bother with a map?

- Visibility?  I'm advised that, "Using the map of Hither as a reference, [the DM should] describe nearby landmarks that the characters can see and allow the players to choose their own destinations," but also that, "A fog-shrouded swamp spreads out below you in all directions...," and that, "The marshland surrounding the pillars is hidden under a 10-foot-thick blanket of fog that heavily obscures all creatures inside it."  What landmarks can the characters see?  Does the blanket of fog obscure all of Hither?  Should all encounters take place in Heavily Obscured conditions, whereby everyone is functionally blind?

From the 100 foot tall Queen's Way, which is presumably above any fog, you should be able to see the entirely of Hither, yet we apparently can't see the 50' 'tall' Slanty Tower (not sure if that's the length of the tower or its height above ground - it's 'slanty') a mile away, as we don't know that that's what the balloon has crashed into?  ("The doomed balloon crashes into Slanty Tower, which the characters can’t see through the fog and haze.")  This seems to lend support to the idea that the 10' deep blanket of fog cloaks the entirety of Hither (and/or that the Slanty Tower somehow doesn't rise more than 10' above the ground) - yech!  Of course, in the first encounter with the 6 bandits, they 'emerge from the fog'...(could be at a range of <5').

- Terrain?  Hither floods at random intervals (We're told to indulge our sadism/change the water level whenever we want to - whee!).  In the flooded state, "The water’s depth is 5 feet. Creatures that don’t have a swimming speed move at half speed through the water."  I have a gnome character, and an elf that is 5' 6"; neither has a swimming speed.  Do they drown?  Is the party meant to stop and climb trees whenever Hither floods?  There is apparently only one hill (Telemy Hill) in the entire place (though it is ringed by mountains and there's the 100' causeway and strangely tall O'-wells), so there's no obvious way to escape in the 1d10 minutes' warning you have before going to flood state.

When it's not flooded, "The sticky mud of the exposed swamp bottom is difficult terrain."  This seems to imply that all of Hither is, at best, Difficult Terrain, requiring double movement - yech!  In our first encounter, against the 6 harengon brigands and their giant snail, they presumably can jump to avoid the effects of the terrain (and the snail presumably ignores mud, as it has one giant foot).  Of course, if no one can see anyone else, the terrain doesn't really matter in combat, as everyone will be blindly trying to reach melee range.  It will halve movement when traveling (when the ground is not entirely flooded, that is).

Of course, there are also the Mud Pits to deal with in the unflooded state, another hazard we are told to apply at our discretion.  ("Party getting on your nerves?  Why not try Mud Pits (TM)?")  Whenever I feel like it, I can force a group check to avoid sudden death of the least Survival-ept in the quicksand effect of a mud pit.  I was promised that my characters could avoid all combat in tWBtW, and I'm starting to see why...

The water level fluctuations are down to the O'-wells, BTW, which are either 10' in diameter and 3d10' high (regular) or 5' in diameter and 10' high (gushing).  I don't understand how these wells - the source and sink of the floods - can be more than 0' tall.  How do they act as drains when they are almost always significantly taller than the max flood depth of 5'?  Why are they so tall?  What purpose does it serve in the game, other than potentially making them landmarks discernable above the 10' deep fog?

Anyway, the whole of Hither sounds like a literal slog filled with deathtraps at this point - is that really what was intended?  Do other DMs have workarounds?  (I've already decided on some workarounds for the complete lack of usable shops/traders, and bounced my party of three up an additional level to give them a chance.)

Thanks!