You just made me realize why I stopped playing Pathfinder: Kingmaker. It would have events that said something like "come to this mountain top for the portal to open" and I'd end up missing it and being beyond frustrated. My brain has been programmed by years of video games to try to complete everything and not accept that some paths are closed off. It's also a reason I couldn't get into Disco Elysium. I felt like I had to try every dialogue option available, which isn't how those types of games are meant to be played.

I blame early Sierra and Lucas Arts adventure games.