1. When I did get stuck, I didn't know that the game manual had the chapter hints. So I just brute forced it. I think there was 1 chapter that the hints helped when I used it. Though, I don't remember which one.
2. I think they are a bit too obtuse. Or at least too short, so the player needs to fill in the blanks on what the hint means. And there was a hint or two that even with me understanding the hint, I still needed to give it a couple dozen attempts to figure out what the game wanted me to do exactly.
Though, of course, this is just my experience, and I am not the smartest player (especially since when I played it, I was sleep deprived, so that definitely didn't help).