One of the issues that stood out to me in OP's post was when I saw 42 hrs, for a 1st time G2 Notr run... That's like, rly rushing through the game and barely exploring IMO - in a game that encourages exploring, and with exploring can come more stat bonuses, which in turn allows one to use said bonuses to raise stats that can be used for secondary weapons/playstyles much earlier to back up the main one which requires to hold off.

Like, I often ended up having as much if not more mana as a dragon slayer or paladin than a mage throughout the mid game due having no restrictions about using any mana increasing bonuses, thus always being able to use a bunch of scrolls in succession when I rly needed 'em. For a str build, dex raising to aid with pickpocketing or dex swords can also come pretty early.

So basically, this:

because every design choice complements another