^^
Good points. The challenge they faced, and didn't quite solve, was they were adapting a narrative designed around a serial comic book.
The Watchmen narrative was put together to fully exploit being a comic, and in no way was designed around a classic 3 arc film narrative. A small example, the middle of the entire sequence, and the middle of Rorsarch segment, has a double page centerfold that is perfectly symmetrical, using the actual comic layout to convey 'his fearful symmetry'.
Also, there were too many characters to remotely develop in the time they had. I think in truth they either needed to bite the bullet and shoot for closer to 3.5 hour to 4 hour runtime, or they needed to be bolder in adapting it to the film format.
Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...
