Regarding DeSantis winning the past two elections, the Democrats here have simply not put forth a competitive candidate against him;
Gillum in 2018, (who only lost by 0.4% of the vote,) who has since been indicted on wire fraud, conspiracy, and false statements charges
And Crist, the former REPUBLICAN Governor
"the ones that can read have already left the state."
This kind of rhetoric - painting Florida as a Republican wasteland - is what DeSantis and his ilk want.
Not everyone has the means to leave (poor, minors, etc.), and pretending like these people don't exist and disenfranchising them is playing right into DeSantis's hands.
There are also those of us that consider Florida our home and hate to see it being abandoned and left to be devoured by DeSantis.
Florida was a solidly purple state pre-covid, but now fans of DeSantis are encouraged to move here and anyone that doesn't like him and/or is threatened by his policies is encouraged to leave, strengthening his stranglehold on the state and giving him a solid base to work from.
If we instead encouraged people that don't like DeSantis to stay/move here and vote/take action against him, it would be much easier to remove him from power.
I was in the same boat as you. I believe that you can explore to your heart's content as long as you don't cross a boundary with a warning about progressing the world.
I explored everything in act 2 up to the boundaries, and then did Moonrise and I don't think I messed up any questlines.
It's hard to describe without spoiling anything, but once you get to Moonrise, it does give you some direction on where to go, so it does kinda make sense to go there ASAP.