I agree it's not very good design, but it's typical of 80s games and GameFAQs and such help make up for it. I suppose the mentality behind it back in the day is that the Famicom/NES was so ridiculously popular that it wasn't uncommon for lots of kids to be playing the same game, so they probably expected these sorts of obtuse games to be played as a community effort, with everybody collectively figuring things out and sharing their discoveries with others.