Crap, why do they all have to come out on the same friggin' day??!!

[OB1]

but most of my frustration wasn't about the hidden items, it was about the way the game hides those special bricks (that require a specific weapon to destroy)/shootable walls/invisible passages that you need to find to progress...

I really don't see what's so odd about not spending my time while playing the game wandering around and randomly trying to destroy every exposed surface I see... because you'd have to do that to not get stuck. And even then you will, unless you think of trying to walk through walls until you blunder into that one hidden passage you need to find to progress...

You made yourself very clear: you hate games with any noticable amount of exploration in them, and you especially hate sidescrollers like that.