I don't see this as part of the game because there is no way Sega would make an early part of the game very game breaking. The stage i'm stuck on is called Windy valley, the second stage after the beach. Main problem i keep running into is going to unplayable areas or off the map to die. This happens when the game would auto run sonic because certain tricks are impossible and will lead to many deaths.

On the beach, I die because I kept pressing up, which means i want to still run but the auto run should fix your mistake from falling into the sea or falling into the cutscene. This did not happen as it will auto run but then stop and the way i turn will either make me fall off the stage or die.

Windy Valley as a loop with auto run doing the loop, main problem is that 90% of characters do loops in one stage or another. Not even if i choice tales would help with continuing on to the game. Anyway, 1/5 way there you will glitch the game stage where you could fall off and die or land on a solid piece of the map. repeat, auto run does not work on that loop and it really needs to be fix.