I believe this quest was hard on purpose, but I disagree about this quest being atrocious. I strongly believe the intent and design behind this quest was to trigger the player. All the lore around this quest, stakes and timelimit are designed to trigger the player and push him/her to his limit. If that sort of stuff happened to me in real life, I would go mad very quickly, and the same happened during this quest. I was so taken and focused by it that I cleared it on first try (52hp left lol), looking everywhere and doing my best for... you know what (stakes).

If the intent of the developers were to push the player in a situation where he/she has to do his best to prevent the "thing", then I believe this quest is a masterpiece, a masterclass on gamedesign.

I've hated this quest from my character PoV. From a player PoV, I love how the quest was put together to push me to my limits.