You made some great points I hadn't considered, thanks for the input!

Another question, should I open the s&q menu on EVERY chest text? Is some text faster than using the menu?

Edit: The all routes Google Doc is outdated, isn't it?

When using emulator, is there a specific control input setting that's required? I noticed I could set Start+Select to bind to the same button, making save and quit input MUCH easier with a PS4 controller. Is that considered cheating?