Could I have some hints? I am struggling with the basics section after having reviewed each puzzle and re-reviewed the start. ROT13:
V guvax lbh pna chg n cngu ba gur oehfu, naq gura gur oehfu jvyy cnvag gung va n qverpgvba be nf gur crefba jnyxf.
Oehfu vqrnf: Vg cnvagf vs gurer vf n oynax fdhner. Vg cnvagf hagvy nabgure oehfu vf rapbhagrerq.
You've got some ideas right although I didn't exactly follow your interpretation. Also after reading your comment and looking at the start again myself I can see where a few more tutorial puzzles (or changes to puzzles) to prune some of the ideas might have helped. I also only just realized that I made puzzles 6 and 8 duplicates - oversight that probably doesn't help understanding.
A general set of hints / logic for understanding the rules (starting with things that may be a bit obvious):
1. Looking at level 2: Pyrneyl gb znxr n cngu lbh zhfg hfr rnpu gvyr ng yrnfg bapr. This is relevant because: vs gur beqre bs gvyrf lbh cvpx jrera'g fgevpg lbh pbhyq cerfhznoyl pbzr hc jvgu zhygvcyr fbyhgvba.
2. The exact meaning of gur oehfu ng gur raq bs n cnyrggr is not something you need to fully grasp to move on but it would explain why yriry frira vf havdhr.
3. Your thought on "gur oehfu jvyy cnvag gung va n qverpgvba be nf gur crefba jnyxf": This is worth considering against yriry guerr. In this level the intuition about beqre from point 1 can constrain the solution quite a lot. In particular In order to place the tiles in a left to right order reading the palette and still make a path to the flag you'll necessarily have to make at least one move that places a tile by stepping off the road. I probably should have made a tutorial level that shows that more clearly in hindsight.
4. I do realize there's other possible interpretations that my point in 3 skips over so I'll justify those here: jurer qbrf gur cngu fgneg? ... vg fgnegf ng gur cnvagoehfu abg gur crbcyr. Guvf jbhyq unir orra rnfvre gb frr vs V'q vapyhqrq gur yriry jvgu gjb syntf naq ab crbcyr sbe yriry 8 vafgrnq bs yriry 6 gjvpr. Ohg yriry 3 pna or cebira vzcbffvoyr jvgu n cnevgl nethzrag vs lbh fgneg gur cngu naljurer bgure guna gur oehfu.
I also think you may have thought that gur arkg cngu gvyr pna tb gb nal ernpunoyr gvyr sebz gur cngu ohg gung znxrf yriry sbhe aba havdhr
One final hint that may help on puzzles after the first 10 or so: consider what happens if you gerng gur oehfu gvyrf va gur cnyrggr ab qvssreragyl sebz nal bgure gvyr va gur cnyrggr
