I'm too sleepy to respond to all this now, but I'll give it a proper response soon enough :) As for the lack of resolution, this is one of the main points of the game. Knytt Underground in many ways mirrors my view on life, and life doesn't build up to anything. It doesn't offer a plot that is designed for a satisfying resolution. It's just random nonsense that happens that we try to apply meaning to in order to understand - even though there's objectively probably no meaning at all.
It's a big part of our plot-centered culture that we want either a resolution or explanation at the end. There's a well established plot structure with a conflict introduced halfway, a climax at the end, and then the resolution where everything is concluded. However, if I added that, the game would lose most of its meaning to me as the entire story is about the opposite - things that just happens. I have been in two relationships, neither worked out. No resolution. I'm trying to figure what life is about. Is it all just logic and physics, or is there a god and an absolute meaning? I can't find the answer. No resolution yet (if I knew the answer, I'd be able to tell you if ringing the bells of fate was important or not).
Even the ending is about this, it keeps iterating on what happens after even though those events are also just fragments of the character's lives. Dora has a dream, but does it mean anything? Cilia doesn't think so (I think she's right but I hope she's wrong). If you find the Enigma and see the secret ending, you find out that Mi's wish at the fairy springs wasn't even to be able to talk, so Dora and Cilia speaking in Mi's place is also essentially because of a misunderstanding.