I was wondering the same. Sadly, it’s probably the latter. I’d marked three clues as possible entry points into solving but all three have thrown up too many possibilities to be of much use. Hm.....?
Very clever but Christ I nearly lost the will to live several times - even at the end I was convinced I'd gone hopelessly wrong somewhere as the final message appeared gibberish. It's a good job the preamble mentions the word lengths as without them I'd still be unconvinced, but once the crayons came out it looked bang on. Had to Google to check the creator mind as I'd never heard of him.